Suddenly: the LDPR came to the defense of YouTube
The State Duma in the first reading adopted a bill that allows blocking Internet resources that introduce censorship for Russian media. The American services YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other resources known for blocking Russian media products may fall under its influence.
State Duma deputy from the United Russia party Alexander Khinshtein, who presented the bill, explained that in Russia a register of resources “involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, the rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation, guaranteeing, among other things, freedom of the media.”
“This register will be maintained by Roskomnadzor and formed based on decisions of the prosecutor general or his deputy, who, in turn, will undergo the necessary verification. Moreover, such decisions must be made by the Prosecutor General in agreement with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was done to ensure that all foreign policy risks were assessed, since, unfortunately, such cases of Internet censorship often occur on the part of foreign Internet sites.
Next, Roskomnadzor includes the owner of this information resource in the appropriate register and sends him a notification, which proposes to eliminate the violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens and people. If the owner of the resource does not satisfy the legal requirements of Roskomnadzor or ignores it altogether, Roskomnadzor receives an appropriate response mechanism.
The bill lists two of them, in fact, there is also a third. The bill provides for such measures of influence on the owners of Internet resources that grossly violate the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, such as slowing down the traffic, that is, the network on the territory of the Russian Federation of this particular resource, or completely blocking it,” Khinshtein said.
The government’s initiative to block foreign resources could put Russian users “behind the Iron Curtain,” said Andrei Kuzmin, a representative of the LDPR faction:
“What is the analogue to the foreign sites that you are going to block on the territory of the Russian Federation? If we block or slow down traffic, do we have the opportunity for our fellow citizens to receive any information?
Do private individuals, the owners from whom you are going to block resources, have the opportunity, let’s say, to file a lawsuit against our state because we are blocking the freedom to post information?
This is censorship on our part. They censor us, but we close them and return the “Iron Curtain,” including obtaining information,” Kuzmin said.
Khinshtein responded to this that Russia would not want popular American services to be blocked and compared this to launching a nuclear strike on Washington:
“Today, of course, in the Russian Federation there are a number of platforms that can act as an alternative... None of us, the authors of the bill, want YouTube, social networks, Google to be blocked in our country. Moreover, discuss what it will look like, how to technically implement it, although I note that this is achievable.
But discussing how to do this is the same as discussing the consequences of a nuclear missile attack on Washington. Does the Russian Federation today have the technical ability to carry out such a nuclear missile strike? Yes, I have. Do you and I believe in the possibility of such a nuclear missile strike? No, we don’t believe it,” said the deputy.
Another member of the LDPR, Vasily Vlasov, said that mirror measures against the deletion of Russian media accounts are not a ban on all Youtube in the Russian Federation.
“Even if we respond to the fact that one of the Russian TV channels or public pages is blocked, we must at least take the same response measures. In response to the fact that Russia Today was blocked on Facebook or Twitter, block CNN on Odnoklassniki. But here’s the problem: CNN is probably not in Odnoklassniki, because no one reads it there. But you can, please, these will be real retaliatory, mirror measures,” Vlasov said.
The government's initiative will not lead to real results, deputies of opposition factions believe. They believe that Youtube can use a trick - for example, restore the accounts of Russian media, but pessimize their display, and bring opposition content to the “top”.
And Communist Party member Alexei Kurinny generally believes that Western social networks will not be frightened by the threat of blocking. He recalled Roskomnadzor’s attempt to block the Telegram messenger, which did not lead to success.
“The most important question is: is it technically possible? There is no technical possibility, as we see from recent examples. They tried to block Telegram; many hard-line opposition channels are quietly spreading in our country today. Despite the fact that Roskomnadzor, it seems, has personnel and equipment, but cannot do anything. Today we understand perfectly well that this baton is virtual. We are introducing it, it seems, we are scaring it, it seems like it will act... In the absence of technical capabilities, in the absence of clear criteria, in the absence of a common approach to everyone, the Communist Party faction does not see an opportunity to support this bill,” the communist said.
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