Russian bloggers face new restrictions from 1 August A new law has come into force in #Russia that will impose wide restrictions on bloggers, blogging platforms and social networks. In broad terms, the law requires popular #bloggers to be regulated in a similar way to media outlets. The new legislation is one of a series of recent moves by the authorities to tighten control over the internet. Non-observance of the new law may mean fines and site blocking. Supporters of the legislation say that influential bloggers, such as anti-corruption blogger and oppositionist Aleksey #Navalny, should be controlled because of their influence on public opinion. Its critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom. Vladimir Putin expressed support for internet regulation along these lines at a media forum in St Petersburg in April. The State Duma passed the new law on 22 April, and Putin signed it into law on 5 May. The legislation, kcoined the law on bloggers by some, was introduced as part of a package of anti-terrorism legislation after the deadly suicide bombings in Volgograd in December 2013. It has two main requirements. First, bloggers - or individuals running any web page - with 3,000 or more unique daily visitors will be registered with the federal media watchdog Roskomnadzor and treated similarly to a media outlet. They will have to publish their names and email addresses, check the truth of published information, observe election campaign law and indicate age limits for readers. They should also avoid disseminating personal information about individuals and extremist materials. Bloggers can register with Roskomnadzor voluntarily. But the agency will monitor blogger readership using open sources, such as LiveInternet.ru and Mail.rus blogger rating. Roskomnadzor may set up its own blog rating system. Yandex, Russias most popular search engine, immediately closed its blogger ranking service when the law was passed. In a similar move, LiveJournal stopped publishing precise blog visitor numbers over 2,500. Second, the law obliges what it calls organizers of the dissemination of information, which includes blogging platforms, search engines and social networks, notify Roskomnadzor about the registration of new users, to store data about their users activity for the last six months on servers in Russia, and to divulge this information to the authorities on demand. Failure to comply will result in fines and could lead to a site being blocked. Roskomnadzor has set up a website (97-fz.rkn.gov.ru/) with a register of bloggers and internet resources that are subject to the law.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 08:55:56 +0000
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