On December 25, the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, approved a bill against “censorship” of Russian media and other illegitimate restrictions to content distribution on the Internet.
- The new law targets Internet resources, including foreign ones, that restrict “distribution of socially significant information in the territory of the Russian Federation on the grounds of nationality, language, origin, property and official status, profession, place of residence and work, attitude to religion.”
- Restrictions “in connection with the introduction by foreign states of political or economic sanctions against the Russian Federation, citizens of the Russian Federation or Russian legal entities” are also forbidden, as well as any “other restrictions that violate the right of citizens of the Russian Federation to freely search, receive, transmit, produce and distribute information in any legal way.”
- Obstacles to the distribution of “messages and/or materials of registered [Russian] mass media” are specifically mentioned and interpreted as “discrimination toward the content of Russian mass media.”
Thus, Russian lawmakers would like to dissuade Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and alike to lower the ranking of Russian media content in their search results, or remove such content in an artificial or illegitimate way — from Russia’s point of view.
If signed by President Putin, this law will allow Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom regulator, to block access to foreign Internet resources either partly or in full for such “censorship,” should such a measure be decided by Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office and Foreign Ministry.
A list of foreign sites that violate the “fundamental human rights and freedoms” of Russian citizens will be compiled. Administrative fines can also be assessed.
“The gates to hell”
This bill’s passage comes as YouTube and other social networks are demonstrating almost daily their ability to amplify the voices of Kremlin critics. Thus, Alexey Navalny’s videos exposing the reported involvement of Russian secret services in attempts to poison him generated several dozens of millions of views on YouTube in just a few weeks.
As a result, these networks are now perceived in Russian ruling circles as uncontrolled tools in the hands of radical opponents and their foreign secret accomplices.
“Google, Facebook, Twitter and so on are participants in an information war” against Russia, believes Igor Ashmanov, a prominent figure of the Russian Internet industry. “They are opening the gates of hell,” exclaimed Vladimir Solovyev, a fierce pro-Putin TV host.
Solovyev also alleges the distribution of his own videos were illegitimately withdrawn from YouTube’s ’Trending’ section. Roskomnadzor went as far as to publicly demanding from YouTube to “lift the restrictions.”
Complaints over similar “restrictions” also came from such state-run or -controlled media as the RT (Russia Today) television network, the RIA Novosti news agency and the TV broadcaster Krym 24 (Crimea 24). As reported by Current Times, Roskomnadzor claims that 24 “censorship” cases involving Russian mass media occurred in 2020.
A law on paper only?
However, the authorities have yet to prove their technical ability and political will to block international video hosting resources and social networks. Recently, after banning Telegram, Roskmonadzor was unable to block it, and its measures against Facebook and Twitter for violating Russia’s personal data storage laws have been thus far rather symbolic than effective.
Blocking international resources would also affect a number of Russians who depend economically on reliable access to social networks such as YouTube, notes Mikhail Klimaryev, executive director of the Internet Defense Society, a cyber-rights advocate, as cited by Current Times.
Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, “YouTube is one of the ways to earn money for a very large number of people,” including bloggers, stores, and educational institutions. “There are very many people whose activity is tied to YouTube. If they’re deprived of that opportunity to work, I don’t think that this will be good for someone,” Klimaryev was quoted as saying.
Alexander Khinshtein, the Duma Information Policy Committee Chairman who introduced the bill, said he counted on prosecutors and the Foreign Ministry to make “very measured and very accurate” use of the bill’s powers. He expressed the hope that that use will not lead to a blockade of YouTube in Russia, reported Current Times.
