Russia will tighten penalties for websites for calling for illegal protests
Since many social networks and Internet companies took part in organizing and popularizing illegal rallies of “supporters” of Alexei Navalny, thereby pushing Russian citizens to illegal actions, Moscow will develop a system of sanctions and significantly increase fines for such network platforms.
The head of the temporary commission of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation on information policy and interaction with the media, Alexey Pushkov, stated this at a press conference in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The Federation Council Commission on Information Policy strongly condemns the activities of Internet companies that allow the posting on their resources of messages, announcements, appeals and information aimed at attracting citizens, in particular minors, to participate in unauthorized actions.
Based on observations of the work of Internet companies in January 2021, the Commission is forced to note that Internet companies did not take proper measures to comply with Russian legislation in this regard.
Internet platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok have become a source of dissemination of calls for mass unrest among Russian citizens; information aimed at inducing or otherwise involving in the commission of illegal actions. And also in the dissemination of unreliable socially significant information, which was presented under the guise of reliable messages...
Moreover, there are cases of Internet companies themselves purposefully working to promote protest activity. That is, they not only served as a platform for expressing protest statements, but also actively worked towards expanding unauthorized actions,” he said.
Alexey Pushkov emphasized that Russia will develop a system of penalties that will be applied to network resources that become relays or generators of illegal content.
“We believe that given the wide range of technical capabilities of Internet companies to distribute content and prevent the dissemination of content that contradicts the legislation of the Russian Federation, the Temporary Commission came to the conclusion that tracking and disseminating such content is technically possible and feasible. However, unfortunately, the Internet platforms we indicated did not take advantage of these opportunities (presumably deliberately).
The Temporary Commission also considers it necessary to improve Russian legislation in order to prevent the use of social networks to mobilize citizens aimed at illegal actions. And he proposes to introduce a system of penalties for the above actions - from fines to temporary or permanent blocking of Internet platforms,” the senator added.
He emphasized that such legislative measures to regulate network companies are now being introduced all over the world, including in Western countries.
“In case of non-compliance with the law, fines will be applied. Moreover, the amount of fines increases significantly. We will now work to create a whole system of penalties, and significant sanctions, which should encourage these network platforms to proceed from the fact that they must obey Russian legislation when operating on Russian territory,” Pushkov said.
The senator added that the sanctions should be significant enough to significantly “hit the pockets” of large Internet companies.
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