This week, the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, adopted controversial amendments to the Russian laws on telecommunications and information, with the stated intention of protecting children from online dangers ranging from pornography to “pro-suicide” and “pro-drugs” propaganda.
Following a suggestion from the ‘Safe Internet League,’ a non-governmental organization formed last year, a register of websites containing harmful content is to be created and managed by a new government body.
The new legislation has generated a flurry of criticism. While social network Vkontakte.ru (VK.com) cried censorship, the Russian version of Wikipedia symbolically suspended access to its articles, and search engine Yandex crossed out the last word of its motto “Finding all.”
Among the most controversial points is that the content could be appreciated in a subjective manner; and that the web pages deemed “harmful” are to be identified in the register not only by their URLs, but also by their IP addresses. These apply to the entire website – including other pages without harmful content – and sometimes to several other websites as well.
But supporters of the amendments argued that, in the absence of any effective obligation of ISPs to block access to the web pages, the register will have a “reputational” rather than repressive effect.
Telecommunication minister Nikolai Nikiforov admitted that some of these amendments should be reviewed. The amendments still have to be confirmed by the upper house of the parliament and enacted by the president.
Source: Vedomosti
