Legislation & regulation

YouTube deletes hyperlinks to Navalny voting initiative

May 7, 2021

YouTube has started deleting hyperlinks to Alexey Navalny’s ‘SmartVote‘ project — a strategic voting initiative designed to identify candidates with the best statistical odds of defeating politicians from Russia’s ruling political party, United Russia.  On Thursday, the media outlet Sota Vision reported that YouTube removed its SmartVote hyperlink from a video streamed in August 2019 during opposition protests …

YouTube deletes hyperlinks to Navalny voting initiative Read More

Russia fines Apple $12 million for blocking third-party apps

April 28, 2021

Russia’s antitrust authority has fined Apple $12 million over a case first brought against the Silicon Valley giant by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. “Apple was found to have abused its dominant position in the distribution of mobile applications on the iOS operating system through a series of actions that led to a competitive advantage for …

Russia fines Apple $12 million for blocking third-party apps Read More

Russia probes YouTube for “abusing” dominant position and “biased” content moderation practice

April 20, 2021

Russia has launched a probe against YouTube for “abusing” its dominant position in the market by making “biased” decisions about comment moderation, a government regulator said on Monday. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said that YouTube’s rules relating to the suspension or deletion of accounts are “opaque, biased and unpredictable.”  “This leads to sudden blocking and …

Russia probes YouTube for “abusing” dominant position and “biased” content moderation practice Read More

Kremlin gives Twitter another month to comply with content removal demands

April 7, 2021

Russia’s internet regulator Roskomnadzor has extended the deadline until May 15 for Twitter to delete content the government objects to or face a ban, the watchdog said on April 6. The state information agency said that it would not block Twitter if it deletes posts relating to pornography and suicide instructions amongst other things. However, …

Kremlin gives Twitter another month to comply with content removal demands Read More

Putin spokesman on Western social media platforms: “We’d like to hope it won’t come to a full ban”

March 30, 2021

While Russian authorities have in recent months ramped up pressure on foreign social media and video hosting platforms, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today he hopes Russia will not be forced to block them. “No one wants a full ban and it would be silly to advocate for one, but it’s necessary to force these …

Putin spokesman on Western social media platforms: “We’d like to hope it won’t come to a full ban” Read More

Russia plans to require foreign IT companies to open local offices and pay taxes

March 19, 2021

The Russian government plans to create a “digital residency” system for foreign IT companies. According to this initiative, Russia will adopt legislation by the end of 2021 that will oblige foreign companies with a client base of more than 100,000–500,000 Russian users to register legal entities in the country and pay taxes. Foreign nationals will …

Russia plans to require foreign IT companies to open local offices and pay taxes Read More

Russian-made apps on electronic devices: Apple prepares to comply with new legal requirements

March 17, 2021

Starting April 1, 2021, tech device manufacturers will be required to pre-install Russian-made, government-approved applications and software onto new devices sold on Russian soil. Dubbed “anti-Apple law,” this legislation was adopted in late 2019 as part of the Putin administration’s “sovereign Internet” strategy.  While the law did not specify what devices new electronic devices are …

Russian-made apps on electronic devices: Apple prepares to comply with new legal requirements Read More

Russia’s pursuit of Internet sovereignty backfires, again

March 16, 2021

A Kremlin attempt to slow down Twitter caused government websites to crash and raised new questions about its ambitious plans to regulate the internet. Wednesday last week was supposed to be a big day for Andrei Lipov, a 51-year-old Russian top official trusted with the Kremlin’s most sensitive internet initiatives. A not very successful internet …

Russia’s pursuit of Internet sovereignty backfires, again Read More

Russia restrains Twitter’s speed and sues other social media over illegal content

March 11, 2021

The Russian Internet and telecom regulator Rokomnadzor announced today first steps to disrupt Twitter’s speed within the country for failing to remove banned content. These measures are said to affect  “100% of cellphones and 50% of personal computers” in the country. “Starting March 10, 2021, centralized response measures have been taken against Twitter to protect Russian citizens and force the [social …

Russia restrains Twitter’s speed and sues other social media over illegal content Read More

Russia threatens to block YouTube and Facebook for “discriminating content” of official media

December 30, 2020

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 …

Russia threatens to block YouTube and Facebook for “discriminating content” of official media Read More

Sber to launch international AI research institute in Russia

November 5, 2021

Last week Sber, Russia’s financial and tech giant (previously known as Sberbank) announced plans to open an international institute for artificial intelligence in Russia as early January 2021.  Sber’s head Herman Gref defined the main mission of the institute as “to provide an interdisciplinary approach to research” in the field of AI.   At the …

Sber to launch international AI research institute in Russia Read More

Proposed EU ‘Data Governance Act’ will make data exchanges with Russia even more difficult, warn experts

December 2, 2020

As part of the European strategy for data, the European Commission proposes a set of measures to “foster the availability of data.” A part of them, published on November 25, focus on “increasing trust in data intermediaries and strengthening data-sharing mechanisms across the EU.”  These measures are aligned with the consumer protection requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) …

Proposed EU ‘Data Governance Act’ will make data exchanges with Russia even more difficult, warn experts Read More

Scroll to Top

This site is under maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This site is under maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience.