Executive order may put Internet media and online anonymity under new pressure

Issued Thursday, a 27-page Presidential executive order titled “Development Strategies for Russian Information Society from 2017 to 2030” is instructing the federal government to devise new mechanisms to rein in online media and limit Internet users’ anonymity.

The Russian president is giving the government six months to reform its strategy for policing “means of providing access to information that are similar to the mass media.” The executive order argues that new measures are necessary to ensure the quality and reliability of the information provided to the public.

Putin’s order specifies that the new policing mechanisms should apply to Internet television networks, news aggregators, social networks, and instant messengers, as well as “any websites,” but provides no details about how these media should be regulated further.