Blocking sites and applications in Russia

Who and why blocks sites in Russia

As of May 2019, the list of "censors" and the reasons for blocking is regulated by the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection." Changes are constantly being made to it, so our list is relevant only at the time of publication.

Since August 2019, the FSB structure has been added to this list - the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents (NCCCI) (see below)

Regardless of who made the decision to block, Roskomnadzor is engaged in its implementation (except for the FSB initiative, which directly appeals to the domain registrar with a demand to separate it). Roskomnadzor enters the domain name, IP address of the site or the address of a specific page in its registry - "black list." All Russian Internet providers regularly upload data from this registry to their equipment. At the same time, the department is obliged to notify the domain administrator about the blocking. There are nuances of the procedure: if the Prosecutor General's Office blocks the information, then Roskomnadzor first blacklists the site, and the hosting provider notifies its owner of this within 24 hours. In other cases, the blocking procedure is different: first, Roskomnadzor sends a notification, then blocks it.

FSB can delete sites the fastest

On August 6, 2019, it became known that the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents (NCCC) of the FSB was among the competent organizations of the Coordination Center for Domains.ru/.rf (CC RF). This will allow the FSB structure to block sites faster than the court and Roskomnadzor.

The new status allows NCCCA to contact domain registrars with complaints about violating sites in order to separate the domain name and actually close access to the Internet resource, the publication explains.

NCCC will be engaged in identifying phishing resources, sources of malicious software (software), tracking the activity of botnets and other attacks using Russian national domains, "Andrei Vorobyov, director of the RF CC, told Kommersant.

In addition to the NCCC, nine more structures are considered competent organizations of the CC of the Russian Federation. These include information security companies (Kaspersky Lab and Group-IB) and state regulators (Roskomnadzor and the Central Bank).

Domain separation differs from blocking sites through court decisions and Roskomnadzor and allows significantly faster restriction of access to the resource. At the same time, access to content on a divided domain is terminated in principle, it can become available only when linking a new domain name, therefore, such a measure is more effective than ordinary locks, says Sergey Grebennikov, director of the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies.

According to Cisco security business consultant Alexei Lukatsky, although the legislation does not describe a measure to separate the domain of the violating site, it is provided for by an agreement with the registrar, which fits into the Russian legal field. 

Domain registrars receive a large number of complaints about dangerous sites, including phishing ones. They lack their own resources to combat such sites, so they are forced to attract competent delegates such as NCCC, Kaspersky Lab and Group-IB.^[1]

Blocking by Roskomnadzor under law No. 149-FZ through the Register of Prohibited Sites

In accordance with the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Protection" (No. 149-FZ), blocking sites can be carried out on the basis of a court decision that has entered into force. That is, before Roskomnadzor enters the corresponding resource in the Register of Prohibited Sites, hearings in the appellate instance must be held or the monthly period allotted for filing an appeal must be released.

After that, Roskomnadzor provides the desired three days to delete the controversial information, otherwise the site will be blocked.

If a decision on interim measures is received, the agency sends notifications to the owner of the relevant site and its hosting provider about the need to delete the disputed information and allocates three days for this.

But Sarkis Darbinyan, a lawyer at the Center for the Protection of Digital Rights, also knows that site blocking by definitions of interim measures is not quick.

"The Civil Law Code does not have a separate procedure for blocking sites on the basis of interim measures," Darbinyan said. - Exceptions are the definitions of the Moscow City Court for blocking sites that violate copyright - but for this there is a separate "anti-piracy law."

2024: Blocking the meshok.net site by court order due to the sale of SIM cards without a contract

The Basmanny Court of Moscow in November 2024 satisfied the claim of the prosecutor's office and ordered Roskomnadzor to enter into the register of prohibited resources the site of the meshok.net on which the sale of SIM cards of mobile operators was carried out without presenting a passport and concluding an agreement. Read more here

2023

The number of site locks for drug publications in Russia increased by 25% to 104 thousand web pages

The number of site locks for drug publications in Russia in 2023 increased by 25% compared to 2022 and exceeded 104 thousand web pages. Such data in Roskomnadzor were disclosed in mid-January 2024.

As Vedomosti writes with reference to the materials of the service, in 2023, 28,400 Internet pages related to the involvement of children in illegal activities were also blocked, against 20,700 a year earlier.

The publication recalls that, in accordance with Russian law, the country prohibits the publication of information on the methods of development, manufacture and use of drugs, places of their distribution, etc. This information, along with information about the propaganda of suicide, extremism and child pornography, is subject to blocking under Art. 15.1 of the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection." ILV, based on the materials of authorized bodies, enters pages with these types of information into the register of prohibited sites, after which communication providers are obliged to restrict access to them.

Despite the increase in blocking, the total number of pages with information about drugs on the Internet is growing, said Ekaterina Mizulina, director of the Safe Internet League. She explains this by the fact that the drug business left the darknet zone and moved to large legal platforms, including Telegram.

According to Mizulina, pages with drug content do not live longer than two months, after which they move to "mirrors," changing bots, account, channel, chat. The head of the Center for Law Enforcement in Moscow and the Moscow Region, Alexander Khaminsky, believes that the mechanism of their temporary blocking, which allows authorized bodies to instantly block a page with illegal content for three days, would help reduce the spread of "mirror" pages with illegal content^[2]

The number of blocked sites with prohibited content in Russia for the year decreased by 10%

The number of blocked sites with prohibited content in Russia in 2023 decreased by 10% compared to 2022. This is evidenced by the data of Roskomnadzor, published at the end of December 2023.

As Kommersant writes with reference to the materials of Roskomnadzor, in 2022 the department blocked or achieved the removal of 587 thousand materials, and in 2023 - about 529 thousand resources. Among them, the main categories in Roskomnadzor are materials with inaccurate information, including regarding hostilities in Ukraine, extremist and pro-drug content, as well as gambling.

In 2023, social networks removed more than 112 thousand illegal materials with suicidal, narcotic content, as well as child pornography, specified in Roskomnadzor. For comparison: in 2022, 98 thousand units of such content were removed. In addition, the service conducts off-register blocking using technical means to counter threats established by telecom operators under the law "on sovereign runet." In particular, access to popular public VPNs and Tor network nodes is blocked.

The number of sites that distribute prohibited information is limited, and the speed of emergence of new ones is low, commenting on Dmitry Ovchinnikov, chief specialist of the department of integrated information protection systems at Gazinformservice.

That is, the information field is gradually cleared. From a market point of view, blocked sites do not stop their work. They are simply not available in Russia. Those who wanted to bypass the bans have long learned to use VPN services, "he explained in a conversation with the publication.

Inna Twerezovskaya, head of the practice of freedom of information and reputation at DRC law firm, believes that the reduction in blocking is due to the fact that social networks and hosting sites are obliged to track and delete illegal information themselves.^[3]

Roskomnadzor blocked Shutterstock photo bank

At the end of February 2023, Roskomnadzor blocked the Shutterstock photo bank. The exclusive representative of photo banks in Russia and the CIS - Fotodom agency - explained that access to the service is limited due to "the placement of material that does not meet the existing requirements." Read more here.

2022

Roskomnadzor in 2022 blocked 20.5 thousand sites of illegal pharmacies

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) in 2022 blocked about 20.5 thousand sites that were engaged in the illegal trade in drugs. For 2020-2022 The regulator for the appeal of Roszdravnadzor stopped the activities of about 45 thousand such resources, which he announced in February 2023. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor entered 384 thousand links in the Unified Register of Prohibited Information

In 2022, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) entered more than 384 thousand links into the Unified Register of Prohibited Information, 99.7% of which were removed by resource owners or blocked by telecom operators. The regulator published such data on February 17, 2023.

At the end of December 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation approved amendments to the rules of operation of the Unified Register of Prohibited Information of Roskomnadzor. The grounds for entering sites or pages of sites in the register included "LGBT propaganda," as well as "information promoting pedophilia or gender change."

TASS recalls that the basis for inclusion in the register is also the decisions of Roskomnadzor in relation to materials on the network with pornographic images of minors, information about drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances, methods of suicide and the manufacture of explosives and weapons, printed in the media and distributed on the network. In addition, the reason for entering the register may be the decision of Roskomnadzor in relation to information about a minor who suffered as a result of illegal actions, posted in the media and distributed on the Internet, as well as materials, the distribution of which was previously prohibited by the court.

Access to the registry is organized using the eais.rkn.gov.ru website, which, however, does not provide ordinary users with the opportunity to view the entire registry or part of it, it provides only:

• receiving an answer whether a site or any of its pages is in the registry;
• submission of a message about a site containing prohibited information for further - inclusion of a resource in the register (you can report anonymously);
• receipt by telecom operators having a Russian license of full lists of resources included in the registry.^[4]

Bailiffs have the right to apply to Roskomnadzor with a court decision on sites with information defaming the honor and dignity of citizens and legal entities

On April 12, 2018, the State Duma adopted in the third, final, reading a law that gives bailiffs the right to block information on the Internet that discredits the honor and dignity of citizens and legal entities.

Now bailiffs can apply to Roskomnadzor to block such information if there is a court decision.

The corresponding amendments to the laws "On enforcement proceedings" and "On information, information technologies and information protection" were initiated by a group of deputies from United Russia.

The law is aimed at increasing the level of execution of executive documents containing requirements for the removal of information disseminated on the Internet that discredits the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen or the business reputation of a legal entity, the accompanying materials say.

The law provides: if a person who disseminates information that is not true, defames the honor, dignity or someone's business reputation, does not delete or prohibit the dissemination of this information within the prescribed period, the bailiff issues a decision to restrict access to such information.

The bailiff must within one working day send the relevant resolution to the federal executive body exercising the functions of control and supervision in the field of media, mass communications, information technology and communications.

"The adoption of the bill will help protect the rights and legitimate interests of persons whose honor, dignity and good name have suffered damage as a result of the dissemination of negative information that does not correspond to reality," the authors of the bill say.

According to the current legislation - Article 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation - if information defaming the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen turned out to be available on the Internet after their distribution, a citizen has the right to demand the removal of such information, as well as its refutation "in a way that ensures that the refutation is communicated to network users Internet."

"The application of liability measures to the violator for failure to comply with the court decision does not relieve him of the obligation to perform the action stipulated by the court decision," the explanatory note says.

Similar methods of protecting business reputation are provided to legal entities.

"The specifics of disseminating information on the Internet require special mechanisms in the legislation for the execution of court decisions, which is to ensure the implementation of everyone's constitutional rights to judicial protection," the authors of the bill note.

Blocking for posting inaccurate information and insulting the authorities

The State Duma raised the fine for posting inaccurate information on the Internet

On March 6, 2019, it became known that the State Duma adopted in the second reading a package of bills prohibiting the dissemination of inaccurate information on the Internet and insulting the authorities. The documents were developed by Senators Lyudmila Bokova and Andrei Klishas and submitted to parliament at the end of 2018.

We are talking about four bills. Two of them are amendments to the Law "On Information, Information Technology and" and information protection imply blocking access to the above types of prohibited information. The other two are amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO), introducing fines for disseminating this kind of information.

In the second reading, all bills were amended. Thus, the bill banning inaccurate information refers to blocking access to "unreliable socially significant information disseminated under the guise of reliable messages, which creates the threat of harm to the life and health of citizens, property, the threat of mass violation of public order and public safety, or the threat of creating the functioning or termination of life support facilities, transport or social infrastructure, credit organizations, power facilities, industry or communications."

The wording that was in the bill after the first reading did not say about credit organizations, power facilities, industry and communications. The Prosecutor General's Office will be engaged in blocking such messages. Blocking will be carried out immediately, and the site owner will receive a notification from Roskomnadzor only after blocking.

In the second reading, a separate rule was added on the dissemination of inaccurate information by online media (media) registered in Roskomnadzor. According to the statements of the Prosecutor General's Office, Roskomnadzor will deal with the removal of this kind of information from these sites.

Notification of the removal of inaccurate information will come from Roskomnadzor to the editorial office of the online publication, which will have to fulfill the corresponding requirement immediately. In case of refusal to fulfill the requirements, Roskomandzor will immediately have to block access to the website of the relevant media.

The revision of the amendments to the Administrative Code regarding fines for disseminating inaccurate information has also changed. In the second reading, the amount of fines for individuals increased. For citizens, it will be from 30 thousand rubles. up to 100 thousand rubles, for officials - from 60 thousand rubles. up to 200 thousand rubles. Thus, the size of the minimum fine for citizens increased 10 times. And for organizations, the amount of fines was reduced and it will be from 200 thousand rubles. up to 500 thousand rubles. The rule on confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense from organizations remained, but only as an option.

These fines will be applied if information is disseminated that poses a threat to the situations described in the bill. If the dissemination of deliberately false information entailed the creation of dangerous situations described in the bill, then the fines will be higher.

For citizens, the amount of the fine will be from 100 thousand rubles. up to 300 thousand rubles. with the possibility of confiscating the subject of an administrative offense, for officials - from 300 thousand rubles. up to 600 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 500 thousand rubles. up to 1 million rubles. with possible confiscation of the subject of violation. Similar fines will be applied in case of repeated violation of the ban on the dissemination of deliberately false information that poses a threat of creating dangerous situations.

If the dissemination of deliberately false information caused the death of a person, the amount of the fine for citizens will be from 300 thousand rubles. up to 400 thousand rubles. with possible confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense, for officials - from 600 thousand rubles. up to 900 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 1 million rubles. up to 1.5 million rubles. also with the possible confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense. The Prosecutor General's Office should be informed about all cases of such cases within 24 hours.

In the bill on blocking access to information expressing "obvious disrespect for society, the state, official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation or bodies exercising state power of the Russian Federation," this wording was expanded by banning information "that offends human dignity and public morality."

The Prosecutor General's Office will look for this kind of information and send it to Roskomnadzor. The version of the bill adopted in the first reading said that Roskomnadzor would immediately block access to such sites, after which their owners and hosting-providers will receive appropriate notifications.

The version of the bill adopted in the second reading says that Roskomnadzor will first notify the hosting provider that the site it serves has prohibited information. The hosting provider must transmit this notification to the site owner within 24 hours, who must immediately delete the prohibited information. Otherwise, Roskomnadzor will block access to the corresponding site.

Amendments to the Administrative Code, adopted in the first reading, envisaged punishment for insulting the authorities on the Internet in the form of a fine in the amount of 1 thousand rubles. up to 5 thousand rubles. or administrative arrest for up to 15 days. In the amended version of the bill, the amount of the fine will be significantly higher: from 100 thousand rubles. up to 200 thousand rubles. The possibility of administrative arrest for up to 15 days is also preserved. That is, the size of the minimum fine has grown 100 times.

In case of repeated violation, the amount of the fine will be from 200 thousand rubles. up to 300 thousand rubles. or the punishment will be the same administrative arrest for up to 15 days. The bodies of the Prosecutor General's Office must be notified of all cases of this kind within 24 hours.^[5]

Individuals' Legal Action Block

2021: Russia passes law to block sites with false accusations without trial

On June 9, 2021, the State Duma adopted a law on blocking sites with false accusations without trial. We are talking about restricting access to an information resource on the Internet, "disseminating inaccurate information that denigrates the honor and dignity of a citizen or undermines his reputation and is associated with accusing this person of committing a crime."

According to legislative innovations, citizens will be able to apply to the prosecutor's office with a statement about taking measures to remove the specified information  and block it in the event of the resource owner's refusal to voluntarily remove material defaming the citizen. After receiving the requirement Prosecutor General's Office Roskomnadzor , takes the necessary measures to remove inaccurate information.

Within a day after receiving a notification of the removal of defamatory information, a site "disseminating inaccurate information that defames the honor and dignity of a person or undermines his reputation and is associated with accusing a person of committing a crime" must delete the information, otherwise a pre-trial blocking awaits him.

According to TASS, the Russian Information Agency, the parliamentary opposition voted against the document (60 votes against), it was criticized by representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and Fair Russia. In particular, the communist Alexei Kurinny expressed fears that the innovation will affect a very narrow number of people and will be applied extremely selectively. United Russia member Yevgeny Revenko, in turn, said that the initiative is not aimed at restricting freedom of speech on the Internet and is not timed to coincide with the election campaign.

We know of tens and thousands of cases where people are unreasonably accused of committing crimes. A person for months, or even years, given the overload of the judicial system, is trying to protect his honor and dignity, - said the deputy, calling the bill "an attack on the bacchanalia" on the Internet.[6]

2018: Blocking 126 sites hosting compromising information

By February 2018, the Ilyashev & Partners Law Office had obtained in the courts the blocking of 126 sites that post information that compromises their clients. This was told by the lawyer of the bureau Dmitry Konstantinov.

The blockages were carried out as part of three lawsuits filed by Ilyashev & Partners lawyers. Who were the clients of the bureau and which sites were blocked are not disclosed in Ilyashev and Partners.

Lawyers only say that there was no federal media among the blocked sites, but the so-called "yellow media" were subjected to it^[7]. It is known that earlier among the resources that post revealing materials, "Компромат.ру," Moscow Post, Crime Russia and other sites fell under the block.

The blocking technology is as follows. The affected party (individual) applies to the district court against the sites that posted incriminating information about him.

The court then rules on interim measures, according to which certain resources should be blocked. An important point is that the definition of interim measures may apply not only to those sites against which lawsuits are filed.

Persons against whom interim measures are imposed do not even have to be notified of the filing of a claim. But then, after making a determination on interim measures, these persons should be brought to the claim as defendants.

The decision on interim measures is usually made by the court within five to six days. It usually takes five to six months for the court to make a decision on the merits of the claim.

Chronology of events

2024

The State Duma approved the blocking of sites by the decision of the president

On July 30, 2024, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on blocking sites by the decision of the president. We are talking about restricting access to Internet resources in order to protect the constitutional system, morality, health, the rights and legitimate interests of others, ensuring the country's defense and state security.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, the changes do not introduce individual criteria or restrictions for presidential bans. Roskomnadzor will block sites with information prohibited by the president, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office.

The State Duma supported the possibility of blocking sites at the direction of the president

If under the current [mid-2024] legislation, the prohibition of the dissemination of information can be carried out only in accordance with federal laws, then according to the proposed - also according to the acts of the President of the Russian Federation, the publication says.

In addition, the adopted law "is aimed at countering the spread of destructive content in the form of trash streams in the information space." By them, the authors of the document mean "live broadcasts, during which acts are committed with cruelty, sadism, bullying, as well as torment for the victim in order to earn funds from donations and increase their audience." It is noted that such videos can collect millions of views, and streamers themselves often get on the front pages of the media and on federal TV channels. At the same time, the law says, the provided criminal and administrative liability do not have preventive significance, since, as a rule, the punishment for the act "is significantly lower than the effect obtained due to the popularity."

In accordance with the adopted law, trash streams are classified as information prohibited for distribution in Russia. The fact of conducting such broadcasts becomes an aggravating circumstance, as well as a qualifying feature under 10 articles of the Criminal Code. The administrative fine for the distribution of such materials will be for citizens from 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles, for officials - from 100 thousand to 200 thousand, for legal entities - from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. It is also possible to confiscate the equipment used to make trash streams.^[8]

Russia adopted a law on blocking sites selling prohibited dietary supplements without trial

State Duma Russia adopted a law providing for pre-trial blocking of Internet resources that trade in prohibited ones. biologically active additives (dietary supplements) This became known on July 9, 2024. The new regulatory act is aimed at strengthening control over the circulation of dietary supplements and protecting the health of citizens. More here

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the transfer of powers from Ministry of Digital Development to Roskomnadzor to block site mirrors

On June 22, 2024, the president Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law according to which the authority Ministry of Digital Development to block copies (mirrors) of prohibited sites is transferred. To Roskomnadzor It is assumed that this will speed up the process of restricting access to such resources.

It is said that the procedure for implementing the rule on restricting access to mirrors of blocked sites provided for by the Federal Law "seems overly difficult." If such a resource is found on the Internet, information about it is sent to the Ministry of Digital Development, which within 24 hours decides to recognize it as a copy of the blocked site. Further, the relevant information is sent to the owner of the site and to Roskomnadzor. After that, the regulator is obliged to ensure interaction with hosting providers, telecom operators and search engines operators within 24 hours, which, in turn, within 24 hours after receiving information from Roskomnadzor, should restrict access to the mirror and stop issuing information about it in the search engine. That is, the blocking procedure can last four days.

Vladimir Putin

The new law involves optimizing the process. Thanks to the transfer of authority to block the mirrors of sites directly to Roskomnadzor, the entire procedure will take no more than two days. As a result, the effectiveness of blocking Internet resources in general will increase. In addition, the adopted law extends the ban on issuing information on copies of prohibited sites in the search engine to all search engines operators, and not only to those who publish ads for users from Russia.

The changes made will extend the obligation to stop issuing information about the site - a mirror in search results to all search engines operators, regardless of their distribution of advertising for Russian consumers, "the document[9]"

Copies of pirated sites in Russia will be blocked faster

In April 2024 State Duma , she passed a bill according to which the powers to combat "mirror" sites Russia pass from Ministry of Digital Development to. To Roskomnadzor It is assumed that thanks to this initiative, copies of pirated sites will be blocked faster

We propose to optimize the scheme so that Roskomnadzor makes a decision and sends it, which will limit access to the "mirror" for up to two days, which is much faster, "explained Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma IT committee.

Powers to combat "mirrors" sites in Russia are transferred from the Ministry of Digital Development to Roskomnadzor in order to block them faster

Roskomnadzor noted that the mechanism provided for by the bill will allow the department to independently decide on the recognition of resources as copies of sites - violators of copyright or related rights and reduce the time for restricting access to them.

In addition, the initiative proposes to extend to all search engines the obligation to remove duplicate pirated ones from search results. By April 19, 2024, only search engines distributing advertising in the Russian segment of the Internet are obliged to do this.

The changes made will extend the obligation to stop issuing information about the "mirror" site in search results to all search engines operators, regardless of their distribution of advertising for Russian consumers, "the explanatory note to the bill says.

In 2023, Roskomnadzor blocked access to 228,000 materials in connection with the failure to remove information disseminated in violation of copyright or related rights. In 2022, 114 thousand pirated materials got through such restrictions. According to MUSO (piracy monitoring) and consultancy Kearney for 2023, Russia is in third place in the world in terms of pirated video content consumption.^[10]

Blocking Amazon cloud services in Russia

On April 15, 2024, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) blocked the Amazon Web Services (AWS) website and began restricting access to the cloud services of the American company. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor has already blocked more than 2 thousand resources to counter interference in the presidential elections in the Russian Federation

More than 2 thousand resources and materials that spread destructive fake information and in order to disrupt the elections in have been RUSSIAN FEDERATION blocked since the beginning of 2024. Presidential elections Russia are scheduled for March 17, 2024. Voting will last March 15, 16 and 17. This was announced on February 9, 2024 by the press service of the deputy. State Duma of the Russian Federation Anton Nemkin

According to the deputy head of Roskomnadzor Vadim Subbotin, for February 2024, the RKN records attempts to discredit the upcoming presidential elections, organizing protest actions aimed at disrupting them, intimidating the population by mass stuffing about terrorist attacks, including in educational institutions, organization and coordination of protests and riots from abroad, related to the regional agenda - any reason is purposefully developed by external forces to destabilize the situation in the regions.

We are actively working on such incidents together with the territorial bodies of Roskomnadzor in cooperation with the Central Election Commission, the General Prosecutor's Office, and interested state authorities. Since the beginning of the year, access to more than 2 thousand resources and individual materials on the above topics has been limited, "Subbotin said.

In general, countries of the West and the United States accept obvious attempts to interfere in the affairs of Russia, external forces continue to try to put pressure on Russian society in the context of the presidential elections in the Russian Federation, said Anton Nemkin. At the same time, platforms that are in foreign jurisdiction or belong to those who are recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation are often used to spread destruction.

{{quote 'Our president has made it clear that a presidential campaign must take place in accordance with the law and any external interference must be suppressed. Therefore, to counter Western attempts, there is constant monitoring of the information space, authorized departments promptly restrict access to information destabilizing society. Monitoring is carried out in several directions - false information is monitored, stuffing related to the upcoming elections, information of an extremist and terrorist nature aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation. This work will definitely be continued and strengthened - at least in the near future several automated systems should be launched at once, which will also help protect Runet from external attacks and internal illegal activities, he said. }}

Nevertheless, the last few years have already taught us a lot - the information security circuit has been significantly strengthened both for all government resources and for business. Investments in cybersecurity are growing, and awareness of threats and measures to counter them is growing, "concluded Anton Nemkin.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said that domestic specialists repelled more than 65 thousand attacks on critical information infrastructure (CII) facilities in 2023. A year earlier, in 2022, 174 thousand cyber attacks on KII facilities were repelled. In addition, in 2023, 1.85 thousand incidents were eliminated against 2.3 thousand a year earlier. At the same time, if 28.9 thousand phishing sites were blocked in 2022, then in 2023 - more than 150 thousand such resources.

Roskomnadzor will depersonalize data on blocking sites

On February 2, 2024, Roskomnadzor published an order on changes in the rules for the operation of the information system, through which operators receive data on blocked sites. The agency proposes to depersonalize information related to the procedure for restricting access to network resources.

The information system in question contains data on blocking at the request of the Moscow City Court, the appeal of Roskomnadzor, copyright holders, etc. The changes relate only to the work of the Prosecutor General's Office: it has the right to extrajudicial blocking of resources with "military fakes" and "discrediting the army," sites of undesirable organizations, calls for riots, etc.

Roskomnadzor published an order on changes in the rules for the operation of the information system through which operators receive data on blocked sites

The document says that the Federal Law of November 2, 2023 No. 526-FZ amended Article 15.3 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ and introduced a new type of information, access to which is limited to Roskomnadzor at the request of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation or his deputies. This is information containing proposals for financing the enemy in conditions of armed conflict, military operations, counter-terrorism operation or other actions using weapons and military equipment, in which the Russian Federation takes part, as well as information on possible ways to carry out such financing.

The Kommersant newspaper notes that Roskomnadzor proposes to cancel the clause according to which Internet users should be able to check the existence of the requirements of the Prosecutor General's Office on the need to remove content prohibited in the Russian Federation. The changes are explained by the fact that the federal law "On Information" does not provide for the publication of the requirements of the prosecutor's office. Karen Ghazaryan, Director General of the Institute for Internet Research, believes that the new rules "will further blur the difference between registered and extra-registered blocking" - those carried out under the federal law "On Information," and those that occur at TSPU (technical means of countering threats), that is, equipment installed on networks under the law on "sovereign runet."^[11]

The authority to block copies of pirated sites will pass from Ministry of Digital Development to Roskomnadzor

On January 25, 2024, a bill will be submitted to the State Duma providing for the transfer of powers to block the "mirrors" of pirated sites from the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation to Roskomnadzor. It is assumed that this will reduce the timing of the introduction of restrictions on access to illegal resources. Read more here.

2023

Roskomnadzor for the year blocked more than 670 thousand prohibited materials. This is more than in 2022

Roskomnadzor in 2023 blocked more than 670 thousand prohibited materials. This is more than in 2022. The agency cited such data on January 26, 2024.

It also follows from the materials of Roskomnadzor that in 2023 about 558 thousand Internet pages were blocked or deleted on the basis of decisions of authorized state authorities, requirements of the Prosecutor General's Office and court decisions, another 112.2 thousand Internet pages - promptly, without being entered into the register, in cooperation with the administrations of social networks and Internet sites.

Most of the blockages in 2023 were for pro-drug content. Access to more than 104,000 "narcotic" Internet pages was limited, which is 25% more than in 2022 (78,800). In addition, 51,200 extremist materials were blocked on the network, according to statistics from Roskomnadzor.

The service also limited access to 26,300 Internet pages containing child pornography, 19,300 materials promoting non-traditional sexual relations and 13,000 resources with suicidal content, according to the agency.

The number of materials with fakes about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which were removed or blocked last year, fell almost twice compared to 2022: 73.5 thousand against 129.4 thousand a year earlier, when this norm appeared in Russian legislation. At the same time, the number of blocked materials on gambling has noticeably increased: up to 113 thousand against 84.1 thousand in 2022.

At the same time, the number of blocked or deleted materials with information about how to commit suicide decreased over the year to 36.6 thousand. In 2022, there were 62.4 thousand of them, according to the RKN.

For the illegal sale of alcohol, 6.9 thousand materials were blocked - the same as last year, and drugs - 35.3 thousand (in 2022 there were 21.8 thousand).^[12]

Roskomnadzor blocked 19 thousand web pages with information about LGBT people in a year

In 2023, Roskomnadzor blocked about 19 thousand web pages with information about LGBT people (this international movement was recognized by a Russian court as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), while in 2022, 239 pages were blocked. This was reported in the department in mid-January 2024.^[13]

Roskomnadzor began blocking OpenAI's GPTBot search robot

On December 11, 2023 Roskomnadzor , he began sending letters to hosting providers with recommendations for identifying and blocking the company's GPTBot bot. OpenAI According to the department, such measures are necessary to "exclude the collection of information on critical resource vulnerabilities." More. here

Roskomnadzor received the right to block sites with data on blocking bypass

In November 2023, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree giving Roskomnadzor the right to block sites with data on blocking bypass. According to the document, which will enter into force on December 1, 2023, "information on the methods, methods of providing access to information resources and (or) information and telecommunication networks, access to which is limited on the territory of the Russian Federation," is subject to blocking.

The Ministry of Digital Development made a proposal to empower Roskomnadzor with such powers in early September 2023. Roskomnadzor later developed assessment criteria to restrict access to sites. Among them - the presence of information there that encourages, convinces of the attractiveness of using methods of access to resources closed in Russia and justifies their advantages.

By November 2023, the register of prohibited data, in particular, includes:

• information on methods, methods of development, manufacture and use of drugs;
• materials with pornographic images of minors;
• information on how to commit suicide;
• information containing offers on retail sale of alcohol by remote method.

On the website of Roskomnadzor there is a form with which users can send a message about the presence of signs of prohibited information on the Internet resource. After verification, this data is transferred to Roskomnadzor. The agency, in turn, blocks the site.

On September 6, 2023, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Technologies, Alexander Khinshtein, said that it was impossible to prohibit VPN services, as well as to hold anyone accountable for their use, since this would not solve the problem of possible transfer of user data to third parties.

Government of the Russian Federation Resolution of November 16, 2023 No. 1926

Roskomnadzor has developed a mechanism for blocking pirated sites for LGBT propaganda in video content

On November 20, 2023, it became known that Roskomnadzor (RKN), the Media Communication Union and copyright holders - participants in the anti-piracy memorandum are beginning to block pirated Internet resources that host videos with LGBT propaganda. The law on the complete prohibition of LGBT propaganda, pedophilia and gender change entered into force in Russia on December 6, 2022.

According to the Vedomosti newspaper, the new mechanism for blocking pirated resources with LGBT propaganda combines information from two databases. This is the Unified Register of Prohibited Materials, for which Roskomnadzor is responsible. Another source of information is a special register in which links to pirated content are made by legal services on a voluntary basis.

It is noted that the copyright holders agreed with the RKN to unload references to individual pirated copies of video content from the anti-piracy register, which fall under the requirements of the law banning LGBT propaganda. The agency will analyze the transmitted links, and if illegal content is detected, it will enter them into the Unified Register of Prohibited Materials. After that, access to such resources will be blocked.

In accordance with the current legislation, for violation of the ban on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations or preferences among persons of any age, a fine of 50 thousand to 400 thousand rubles for citizens, from 100 thousand to 800 thousand - for officials, from 800 thousand to 5 million or suspension of activities up to 90 days - for legal entities. Internet resources that disseminate such information are threatened with entering into the register prohibited with subsequent blocking. Legal video services as of November 2023 have removed illegal content from their sites. At the same time, films and TV shows with LGBT demonstrations are mandatory 18 + markings^[14]

In Russia, they will begin to prepare media centers

In Russia, for the first time, a training program was launched for media professionals who identify extremist and destructive materials on the Internet. This direction of undergraduate studies appeared in the RANEPA. The initiative is justified, since the volume of such content in social networks and instant messengers is constantly growing - only over the past six months there have been 16% more such materials. This was announced on November 9, 2023 by the press service of the State Duma deputy RFAnton Nemkin.

Learn more > >

167 VPN services and more than 200 mail services blocked in Russia

In Russia, 167 VPN services and more than 200 mail services are blocked. Such data at the end of October 2023 was published by the director of the Center for Monitoring and Management of the Public Communications Network (CMU SSOP) Sergey Khutortsev as part of his presentation at one of the forums dedicated to the regulation of the field of information and communication technologies.

According to Interfax"" with reference to Khutortsev's materials, as part of countering threats to the security and sustainability of Runet in Russia, more than 590 thousand information resources, over 2 thousand phishing sites, more than 84 applications and 20 distribution centers were also blocked or limited in the work. malware In addition, at least 17.5 thousand IP addresses are whitelisted and excluded from filtering.

According to Sergei Khutortsev, TSMU SSOP has established close work with regulators in the field of information security to block malicious sites.

These are phishing resources, and resources that participate in information wars against the Russian Federation, and blocking bypass services, "he said.

Since August 2023, all communication nodes in Russia have been 100% equipped with means to counter threats based on TSPU equipment to filter user traffic from prohibited content.

According to the law "On Communications," the means of bypassing the blocking of illegal content are recognized as a threat. The Public Communications Network Monitoring and Management Center (CMU SSOP) is taking measures to restrict the operation of VPN services in Russia that violate Russian law, Roskomnadzor told various media outlets in response to a request regarding problems with users in Russia accessing various VPN services as part of the TSPU.

On October 24, 2023, the head of Roskomnadzor, Andrei Lipov, said that the regulator does not record massive problems with VPNs from companies that use them in their work, and those that arise are resolved within three hours.^[15]

Russia adopted a law on blocking sites sponsoring a military enemy

On October 18, 2023, the State Duma adopted in the third (final reading) a law on blocking sites sponsoring a military enemy. The procedure provides that if the relevant information is received, the Prosecutor General appeals to Roskomnadzor with a demand to block it.

The document proposes to take measures to restrict information resources containing a proposal to finance the enemy in conditions of armed conflict, hostilities, counter-terrorism operation or other actions using weapons and military equipment, in which the Russian Federation takes part, as well as information on possible ways to implement such financing.

The explanatory note notes that during the period of the special military operation carried out by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, numerous facts of the participation of foreign media platforms and organizations in disseminating information with proposals on financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine and on possible ways of implementing such financing have been established.

The law states that in the context of the intensification of the activities of NATO countries directed against the security of the Russian Federation, the dissemination of information on the Internet with a proposal to finance the enemy poses a threat to the security of Russia and requires urgent measures to restrict access to information resources disseminating such information.

As the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Vasily Piskarev noted, the responsibility of financing the enemy in a military conflict by October 2023 may already entail responsibility in accordance with Art. 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("High treason").

It contains a ban on the provision of financial and material and technical assistance to a foreign state directed against the security of our country and provides for responsibility up to life imprisonment, Piskarev told reporters earlier (quoted by Interfax).[16]

Roskomnadzor began blocking sites for refusing to remove LGBT materials

In early September 2023, Roskomnadzor began blocking sites that refuse to remove LGBT materials. In a few days, 23 such resources were discontinued.

23 sites that did not comply with the department's requirements for the removal of prohibited materials are blocked. Of these, five sites are devoted to LGBT topics, 18 are sites of pirated online cinemas that distribute films with LGBT propaganda, RIA Novosti reported to Roskomnadzor.

On September 2, 2023, Roskomnadzor began blocking sites that will not remove LGBT content within 24 hours after receiving notifications from the department.

For the distribution of materials promoting non-traditional sexual relations in the media and on the Internet, the law provides for restricting access to information resources and services, as well as fines of up to a million rubles for citizens and up to two million for companies.

The order of Roskomnadzor with the criteria for propaganda of LGBT, pedophilia and gender change entered into force on September 1, 2023. According to the criteria, the material is considered prohibited for distribution, including if there is the following information: the formation of a distorted idea of ​ ​ the social equivalence of traditional and non-traditional sexual relations; building interest in non-traditional sexual relationships, justifying the advantage of non-traditional sexual relationships over traditional relationships; justifying abandoning traditional sexual relationships in favor of non-traditional ones; forming a positive attitude towards gender reassignment.

In September 2023, a form for complaints about LGBT and other prohibited content posted on the LGBT Network began to work on the Roskomnadzor website.

If you are faced with illegal content on the Internet, please send an appeal through a feedback form on the Roskomnadzor website: http://eais.rkn.gov.ru/feedback/, the agency's website says.[17]

The Ministry of Digital Development will ban sites in Russia with information on methods of bypassing locks

In early September 2023, it became known that Ministry of Digital Development Russia it had prepared a draft resolution banning sites with information about methods of bypassing locks.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, the amendments were developed by the deputy from United Russia Anton Gorelkin. Amendments are made to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 26, 2012 No. 1101 "On a unified automated information system Unified register of domain names, site page pointers in the information and telecommunication network of the Internet and network addresses that allow identifying sites in the information and telecommunication network of the Internet containing information, the distribution of which is prohibited in the Russian Federation."

The essence of the amendments is that Roskomnadzor will be able to block sites with information about ways to bypass locks. In other owls, those network resources that host instructions for visiting sites already blocked in Russia will not be available. In July 2023, a similar initiative was approved by the State Duma Committee on Information Policy: amendments were made to the federal laws "On Communications" and "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection."

Since 2017, VPN services have been banned in Russia, which allow you to bypass Internet sites blocked in Russia. Gorelkin says that "a rule is being introduced prohibiting advertising ways to bypass locks - not VPN services." At the same time, other changes to the current legislation are provided.

These are new rules for the work of government agencies with hosting providers (the refusal of the services of foreign companies is spelled out) and requirements for owners of news aggregators by analogy with requirements for owners of classifies (more than 50% of Russian control in the management structure), says Gorelkin.[18]

Roszdravnadzor blocked almost 1,200 sites where abortion drugs were sold

At the end of July 2023 Roszdravnadzor , he presented statistics, according to which, as a result of monitoring due to the presence of proposals for retail to trade drugs intended for medical termination of pregnancy, 1,181 sites were blocked. More. here

In Russia, sites will be blocked for illegal recommendation technologies - a law has been signed

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law regulating the operation of recommendation algorithms on the Internet. The corresponding document was published on the official portal of legal information on July 31, 2023.

Under the new article "Features of providing information using recommendation technologies," owners of sites using algorithms for recommendations should inform users that they are using recommendation algorithms, as well as notify them about methods of collecting and analyzing user data, post information about the rules for using recommendation algorithms.

Also, resource owners should develop rules for the use of recommendation services, describing the processes and methods of collecting, systematizing, analyzing information related to the preferences of Internet users, providing information on this information, as well as ways to implement such processes and methods.

It will be monitored for compliance. Roskomnadzor For site owners who use recommendation algorithms to mislead users, spread fakes or otherwise violate Russian law, sanctions are provided up to blocking.

Also, a period has been established during which the owner of the information resource is obliged to fulfill the regulator's requirement to stop providing information using recommendations - 24 hours will be allotted for this.

From October 1 [2023], the first legislative norms aimed at regulating the product of artificial intelligence will begin to operate in Russia. I hope that thereby in this area the correct vector of informing users about how AI works and what data it collects, as well as state control over its legitimate application, will be set, "explained Anton Gorelkin, author of the initiative, deputy chairman of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications in the State Duma.

Federal Law of 31.07.2023 No. 408-FZ "On Amending the Federal Law" On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection "

In the DPR block Google and Zoom

In mid-February 2023, it became known about the blocking of Google and Zoom services in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). There are also problems in the region with downloading images and videos via Viber.

According to Vedomosti, in October 2022, the DPR Ministry of Communications sent a letter to local operators with an order to block Google, Viber and Zoom, as well as to "degrade" (slow down traffic) YouTube. Locks should be carried out at the level of the main operator (in the DPR it is "Ugletelecom").

They began to fulfill the requirements only in February 2023, the newspaper's interlocutors said. One of them said that third-party services dependent on Google began to malfunction - in particular, subscribers with electronics Android based on (owned by Google) had problems.

Google has a large range of IP addresses, and the company randomly uses them in different services, so they periodically fall off, "he explained.

A representative of Roskomnadzor told the publication that the department "has no information about the mentioned letter to telecom operators operating in the territory of the new Russian regions." According to him, military-civil administrations regularly check the effectiveness of restricting access by telecom operators to resources that violate Russian law.

The publication reminds that the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin wrote about the need to block Google services back in the summer of 2022 in his Telegram channel. According to Pushilin, Google is the main platform responsible for "bullying Russians" and disinformation on the Internet. The day before, a similar statement was made by the acting head of the LPR Leonid Pasechnik. He said that "a flurry of fakes and disinformation" fell on the republic from Ukraine^[19]

Blocking FBI and CIA sites

At the end of January 2023 Roskomnadzor , he blocked Russia access to sites, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as well as platforms for combating terrorism and counterintelligence. State Department USA

Access to sites is cia.gov, fbi.gov is rewardsforjustice.net limited, follows from the data of the universal service for checking access to sites of Roskomnadzor. When trying to go to the CIA website, the inscription appears: "The resource for this IP address is blocked by decision of state authorities," and on the sites of the FBI and the State Department platform: "It is not possible to access the site."

The press service of Roskomnadzor explained to RBC that "materials containing unreliable socially significant information" were found on these resources, as well as discrediting the Russian military.

On the basis of Federal Law No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," Roskomnadzor limited access to a number of resources belonging to state structures of hostile countries for distributing materials aimed at destabilizing the social and political situation in the Russian Federation, the department said.

In June 2022, Vasily Piskarev, chairman of the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of foreign interference in the internal affairs of Russia, said that Russia would block the Internet portals of the US Department of State. He said that the resources of the State Department contain fakes that discredit Russian military personnel and a special operation in Ukraine.

Roskomnadzor later restricted access to the ShareAmerica State Department website, designed to disseminate information about US foreign policy abroad. The blocking was carried out at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia.^[20]

2022

Roskomnadzor reported an increase in the number of blocked pirate sites

In 2022, Roskomnadzor (RKN) received almost 20% more applications from copyright holders for copyright protection compared to 2021, as well as definitions of the Moscow City Court on preliminary blocking of resources for claims of owners of stolen content. This was reported in the department on January 23, 2023. Read more here.

Blocking 11,900 fraudulent sites

In 2022, 11,900 fraudulent sites were removed or blocked. This was Roskomnadzor announced on January 12, 2023. As the regulator noted, access to such sites is limited at the request of specialized bodies or by a court decision,

Roskomnadzor recalled that fraudulent resources are created mainly to steal money or personal data of users. Most often, attackers use sites that mimic the official sites of large financial organizations or online stores.

At the end of December 2022, it was reported that Roskomnadzor blocked more than 157 thousand fakes about a special military operation and calls for rallies. According to the deputy head of Roskomnadzor Vadim Subbotin, information stuffing was carried out on American social networks and through the resources of foreign non-profit organizations.

In 2022, the Ministry of Digital Development launched an anti-phishing system that will automatically identify fraudulent sites - copies of official portals of state organizations, marketplaces and social networks. The new information system is able to identify phishing sites on which scammers steal personal data of visitors, force them to download malicious software or sell non-existent services and goods, misleading buyers.

The system is able to track suspicious site activity and allows you to receive information about fake resources from third-party sources. It can also control new, re-registered and transferred domains at a rate of up to 1 million addresses per hour. All information about questionable resources will be entered into the database for phishing verification. Fraudulent resources will be blocked "with automated interaction of government agencies," the Ministry of Digital Development said.^[21]

Roskomnadzor increased blocking of sites with illegal calls to minors by 41%

In 2022 Roskomnadzor , he blocked 20,706 sites with information aimed at attracting children to illegal activities, against 14,658 in 2021 (thus, in 2022, the growth was 41%) and 4921 in 2020 (an increase of more than 4 times). The regulator published such data in January 2023.

According to Vedomosti, citing statistics from Roskomnadzor, the number of sites with information about methods of improvised manufacture of explosives and weapons in two years has decreased by one and a half times (from 4,500 in 2020 to 3,000 in 2022). What caused this dynamics of blocking, the department did not explain to the publication.

After identifying such sites with prohibited content, Roskomnadzor took measures. In particular, the materials were removed by site owners at the request of the department. Also, some resources were blocked at the request of the regulator by providers or telecom operators.

Irina Rukavishnikova, First Deputy Head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, noted that the topic of protecting children from illegal content on the World Wide Web attracts a lot of attention in society. People are trying to help supervisory authorities remove such information from free access.

Numerous volunteer organizations assist government agencies in identifying prohibited and destructive content on the Internet, she said.

Earlier, Roskomnadzor appealed to all social networks, information resources and the media with a demand not to allow the dissemination of information "involving minors in illegal actions, calling for participation in illegal rallies, committing any actions with dangerous consequences for children."^[22]

The number of blocked drug sites in Russia has tripled in two years

In 2022, 78,812 Internet materials with information related to the methods of manufacture, use and trafficking of drugs and other psychotropic substances were removed or blocked in Russia. Vedomosti wrote about this on December 25, 2022, citing data from Roskomnadzor. Read more here.

Mishustin introduced LGBT propaganda to the list of content subject to blocking on the Internet

On December 26, 2022, a government decree signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was published, by which LGBT propaganda was included in the list of content that is blocked on the Internet. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor blocked the site of the OKX crypto exchange

On October 5, 2022, it became known about the blocking of the OKX crypto exchange website. Roskomnadzor took the appropriate measures by decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. Read more here.

Rosselkhoznadzor received the right to enter into the register of prohibited resources sites selling prohibited veterinary drugs

In August 2022, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree giving the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) the right to enter sites in the register of prohibited resources. Read more here.

The Ministry of Digital Development creates a pre-trial blocking system for fraudulent sites

On August 11, 2022, it became known about the decision, Ministry of Digital Development communications and mass media RUSSIAN FEDERATION to block fraudulent resources disguised as official sites without a court ruling. To do this, the department will expand interaction with the Prosecutor General's Office within the framework of the Antifishing information system. More here

Roskomnadzor entered the Wheely website into the register of prohibited information

In July 2022, Roskomnadzor entered the website of the Wheely premium car order service into the register of prohibited information. The regulator explained its decision by the decision of the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor blocked Proton VPN

In early June 2022, it became known about the blocking of Proton VPN. The fact that users of the service in the Russian Federation began to experience problems with access to it was first reported by the company itself, and Roskomnadzor then confirmed the introduction of restrictions. Read more here.

Yandex removed the sites of Instagram, Facebook and publications blocked in Russia from the search

On April 18, 2022, Yandex announced the removal of official Instagram and Facebook sites from search results (banned in Russia; belong to Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation). VK did the same. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor blocked the job search site Jooble

On April 4, 2022, it became known about the blocking of the job search site Jooble. This happened a few weeks after the service closed access to Russians and Belarusians, and also condemned the Russian special operation on. To Ukraine According to Roskomnadzor the registry, the Jooble site was blocked on demand on State Offices of Public Prosecutor March 25, 2022. The regulator blocked the Russian and Belarusian versions of the site. More. here

2021

Roskomnadzor doubled the blocking of pirated resources to 59 thousand.

In 2021, Roskomnadzor blocked by a court decision about 59 thousand pirated sites by a court decision against 30 thousand a year earlier. This, referring to the statistics of the department, was announced on February 9, 2022 by Kommersant.

The regulator associates the growth of piracy with an increase in population demand for digital content amid the growing popularity of remote work amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

According to WebKontrol, in 2021 the volume of pirated content in Russia increased by 24%. Analysts note that the number of "pirated" links in social networks and resources where users themselves share content has only doubled.

Group-IB for 2021 revealed 6 million links to pirated content in Runet, while in 2020 their number was 2.3 million. The number of sites hosting illegal content has also grown - from 21.7 thousand to 32.5 thousand. The number of domains used by pirates has more than tripled - to 197.6 thousand.

The increase in the number of resources blocked in court is due to the fact that pirates, in the face of tougher regulation, began to actively use methods to bypass restrictions, said Alexander Isaev, head of the automation department of the Digital Risk Protection Group-IB department, primarily the mechanism for constantly changing domains of different levels.

According to Sarkis Darbinyan, managing partner of Digital Rights Center, the rise of pirated resources is only partially due to an increase in the consumption of video content. He believes that for almost ten years of the fight against piracy, Roskomnadzor has not achieved significant success - "pirated content is still popular with Russians due to established habits or lack of the opportunity to buy a subscription to a legal service." Pirates create two or three new illegal resources for one blocked site, Darbinyan added.^[23]

Roszdravnadzor received the right to block sites where fake certificates are sold

In November 2021, it became known about granting Roszdravnadzor the right to block sites where fake medical certificates are sold without court permission. The corresponding amendments are posted on the portal of draft legal acts. Read more here.

Central Bank of the Russian Federation begins to block fraudulent sites without trial

November 11, 2021 Roskomnadzor announced that from December 1 Central Bank of the Russian Federation it will begin to block fraudulent sites in the financial sector out of court. Previously, the procedure for stopping the work of resources that contain information of a fraudulent nature lasted several months, and now the period will be reduced to several days.

The Central Bank will be able to initiate restrictions on access to fraudulent sites that mislead users due to the similarity of domain names, registration or content with these financial organizations, with the provision of financial services on Russian territory by persons who do not have the right to provide them , as well as to sites associated with financial pyramids.

The Central Bank will also be able to apply to the court  to restrict access to sites that disseminate information about illegal access to the information systems of credit institutions or non-bank financial institutions. Consideration of cases   on blocking the sites of fraudsters will take place in accordance with the Code of Administrative Offenses.

It is established that the decision to block is made by the Prosecutor General or his deputy on the basis of an appeal from the head of the regulator or his deputy.

According to Igor Ashmanov, managing partner of Ashmanov & Partners, the operational blocking of malicious sites will help protect gullible Russians from fraudsters' tricks. When the Central Bank begins to block access to sites that are clearly similar to fraudulent sites without a court sanction, it scoonomizes the finances of a number of Russians. On the other hand, there are risks that can be blocked by mistake or become part of the fight to eliminate competitors, he said.

According to Roskomnadzor on November 11, 2021, by this day since 2014, the department has blocked or deleted almost 6.5 thousand fraudulent sites. 65% of such sites are closed by court order and 35% at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office.^[24]

Blocking Google Docs in Russia

September 15, 2021 in Russia began to block Google Docs. As the GlobalCheck project, specializing in monitoring the Russian Internet blocking system, said on its Twitter blog, the operation of the site is docs.google.com limited by the operators of MTS, MegaFon and Rostelecom. Read more here.

Blocking VPN in Russia turned into problems for legal services

After Roskomnadzor he began to actively block - VPN services, users encountered problems accessing, Avito World of Tanks and World of WarShips games, Twitch and. BitTorrent Writes about this "" in the Kommersant issue of September 9, 2021. More. here

Putin signed a law blocking the sites of financial pyramids

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law blocking the sites of financial pyramids. The corresponding document on July 1, 2021 appeared on the official portal of legal information.

According to the law, the Bank of Russia will be able to initiate restrictions on access to fraudulent sites of illegal credit institutions and financial pyramids, as well as phishing information resources.

According to the deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia German Zubarev, the adopted law will reduce the loss of citizens from the actions of online fraudsters. Criminals manage to deceive many people before access to the fraudulent site is closed, this practice, in particular, is characteristic of financial pyramids. The adoption of the law will change the situation, he said.

According to the head of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Alexander Khinshtein, the law is aimed at solving an important problem - to combat the so-called phishing sites advertising unscrupulous, unreliable financial services and various pyramids.

This procedure that exists today allows you to carry out such court decisions and block sites as soon as possible, within a few days. This bill will allow a huge number of our citizens to avoid abuse, fraud and keep their money intact, he said.

According to the Central Bank, online scammers especially intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as citizens preferred to receive services and services mainly in a remote format. In the first quarter of 2021, 124 illegal forex dealers, 85 financial pyramids and 144 illegal lenders were identified. In general, about 45% of illegal participants in the financial market and financial pyramids operate on the Internet.^[25]

Central Bank received the right to block fraudulent sites without trial

On June 17, 2021, the State Duma in the third (final) reading adopted a bill on extrajudicial blocking of fraudulent sites. We are talking about resources that advertise financial pyramids, mislead clients of credit or non-bank financial institutions with the similarity of domain names, registration or content, offer financial services that they have no right to provide.

According to RIA Novosti, citing a document approved by the State Duma, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is empowered to decide on the inclusion of fraudulent sites in the unified register of domain names and network addresses containing prohibited information for their subsequent possible blocking.

Having identified a fraudulent resource, the Central Bank will also have the right to apply to the court with a statement to block illegal information. Cases belonging to this category will be considered in accordance with the Code of Administrative Offenses.

The Chairman of the Central Bank and his deputies can also contact the General Prosecutor's Office, which, in turn, will take measures to pre-trial block the site with fraudulent information.

The document allowing the Bank of Russia to block the websites of financial fraudsters without trial was developed by a group of senators and deputies led by the chairmen of both houses of parliament - Vyacheslav Volodin and Valentina Matvienko. The law will come into force on December 1, 2021.

The head of the Association of Forex Dealers (AFD) Yevgeny Masharov supports the decision of the State Duma in empowering the Bank of Russia with the appropriate powers.

We believe that the legislative procedure for blocking sites will allow us to more quickly respond to the emergence of sites of pseudo-financial companies and thereby reduce the number of negative examples in the history of the financial market, and accordingly, the degree of protection of property rights of our citizens will increase. The adoption of this law will de jure settle the established mechanism of extrajudicial blocking of the sites of such organizations, he said.[26]

Prosecutors are getting closer to getting the right to vne­sudeb­noye og­ra­niche­niye dos­tu­pa to say­tam

In June, 2021 in the second reading the bill of a possibility of extrajudicial restriction of access to the websites which extend the unreliable information connected with charge of crimes is adopted. This bill assumes assignment of powers for cases of insult on the Internet on administrative authorities,^[27] restriction of access to the websites.

Bill No. 1113081-7 supplements the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" with a new article, which provides for the pre-trial blocking of Internet resources that disseminate inaccurate information that defames honor and dignity or undermines reputation and is associated with the accusation of a person in the commission of a crime.

According to the text of the document, prosecutors of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation will check the accusations on the Web for validity. The check is given 10 days from the date of application. Further, the prosecutor's office must send the conclusion for consideration to the Prosecutor General of Russia or his deputy. They must check the validity of the claims within five days. If there is a violation, according to the Prosecutor General or his deputy, then they will be obliged to contact Roskomnadzor with a demand to delete the information.

The explanatory note says that the basis for taking protection measures in accordance with the bill will be the submission by a citizen of an application to the prosecutor's office to take measures to remove inaccurate information that denigrates his honor and dignity or undermines his reputation and is associated with an accusation of a crime. The bill enshrines the requirements for the specified application, in particular, determines the list of information that must be reflected in the application, as well as the need to include documents confirming the unreliability of the posted information in such a statement.

Roskomnadzor blocked the Superapteka.ru website for selling prescription drugs via the Internet

In mid-April 2021, Roskomnadzor first blocked the website of a large pharmacy chain for selling prescription drugs via the Internet. The work of the Superapteka.ru site belonging to the Erkafarm Group of Companies was suspended. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor uses new technology to slow down Twitter traffic

Russia uses new technology to slow down Internet traffic in the country, according to experts from Censored Planet. According to them, this is the first known case when the government censors Internet content by restricting the company's traffic rather than blocking access to its services ^[28]

We are talking about the slowdown of Twitter traffic by Roskomnadzor for non-compliance with the requirements of Russian legislation to remove illegal content. According to Censored Planet, for this the regulator uses TSPU (technical means of countering threats), which replaced SORM (a system of technical means to ensure the functions of operational-search measures).

SORM, consisting of special network devices installed in the data centers of telecom operators, allows you to block access to certain domains by adding them to the registry of prohibited resources. If there are court decisions and Roskomnadzor, telecom operators must change the appropriate firewall settings and block the traffic of these domains.

However, in recent years, it has become clear that such a blocking can be bypassed using proxy and VPN services. In addition, companies like Telegram have found ways to bypass blocking using a fronting domain (using different domain names at different levels of HTTPS connection to seamlessly connect to another target domain that is not noticeable to third parties that track requests and connections).

New TSPUs do not work the same way as SORM. Firstly, they are not under the control of telecom operators and are managed directly by Roskomnadzor. Second, the SRTs are deployed two steps closer to the end user than the SRM. Thirdly, these devices do not work as traditional firewalls, but rather as network DPI filters. DPI-based solutions allow you to see the contents of network packets and their real destination, even if the connection is encrypted using TLS.

As Censored Planet experts explained, TSPUs work by analyzing the SNI extension of the TLS protocol, thanks to which Roskomnadzor can determine which domain the user connects to before the connection is encrypted.

The Twitter incident is the first time TSPU has been used. According to experts, this explains why the first launch of the system was unsuccessful - too wide a filtering rule led to a slowdown not only in Twitter traffic, but in other domains.

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a law on extrajudicial blocking of "defaming information"

On March 24, 2021, the State Duma in the first reading adopted a bill on pre-trial blocking of pages on the Internet, which disseminate information defaming citizens and report on their commission of crimes.

Now only in court you can defend your rights, which does not fit with the speed of dissemination of information on the Internet. We propose an out-of-court procedure for restricting access to such resources, "Sergei Boyarsky, one of the authors of the bill, explained to the deputies (quoted by Kommersant).

Amendments, in particular, are proposed to amend the current legislation, according to which, in case, when the person who disseminated the untrue information has expired, established for voluntary fulfillment of the requirement contained in the as-built document to delete the information available on the Web, defaming the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen or legal entity, did not remove them, the bailiff issues a decision to restrict access to such information.

A citizen who considers that his honor and dignity are defamed will first need to submit an application to the prosecutor's office. The data described there should be studied and checked for validity by the prosecutor's office within 10 days from the date of submission. Based on the results of the audit, a conclusion is drawn up on the existence of grounds for taking measures to remove inaccurate information or the user is notified of the absence of such grounds.

Then, within five days, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation or his deputy checks the validity of the conclusion adopted by the prosecutor's office of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. If confirmed, an appeal is sent to Roskomnadzor with a request to take measures to remove inaccurate information.^[29]

Extrajudicial Site Blocking Act Could Be Used to Pressure Opposition

The Just Russia faction opposes a legislative initiative that will not give anything to protect the rights of citizens, but will make it possible to shut up those who disagree with the ruling party, socialist leader Sergei Mironov said in March 2021.

Earlier, the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications recommended the adoption of the bill in the first reading. The document provides for a pre-trial blocking mechanism at the request of citizens of sites that disseminate "inaccurate information that denigrates the honor and dignity of a person or undermines his reputation and is associated with accusing a person of committing a crime."

"This bill from the series" well-intentioned road is clear where. " Of course, if a person is accused of a criminal offense and lies at the same time, then it is necessary to punish. But we understand what will happen in practice if this norm passes. As soon as we say some word, we will publish, they will immediately grab us and let us down under this article, "said Sergei Mironov.

He recalled that for several years in Russia, the practice of removing false information and blocking resources by a court decision has been successfully used. In addition, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation has the appropriate blocking powers before the trial in some cases.

"This law will not give anything to protect respectable citizens, but will be used against the opposition. What decision do you think will be made if a member of United Russia is slandered, and what if a member of the opposition party? Unfortunately, I have reasonable concerns about how this rule on extrajudicial killings can be used during the election campaign, "added Sergei Mironov.

Roskomnadzor slowed down all sites with "t.co" in the domain

Since

March 10, Roskomnadzor has decided to slow down the speed of the Twitter social network in Russia by 100% of mobile and 50% of stationary devices due to violation of Russian law by the resource.

The slowdown was hit by the Russia Today edition, the Microsoft.com domain, podcaster sites - Beardycast and Zavtracast, subdomains Github, Steam and others^[30].

A slowdown in other resources besides Twitter was discovered by^[31] user of the service and researcher of network locks under the pseudonym ValdikSS. First, he noticed the restriction of access to one of the GitHub subdomains, and then came to the conclusion that Roskomnadzor automatically slowed down all sites with t.co in the domain - one of the twitter subdomains.

Initially, Valdik decided that other sites were slowed down due to the fact that Roskomnadzor limited some global CDN - a content distribution network that is used by many resources at once. However, then he conducted more tests with different addresses and found a pattern - only resources slowed down, in the address bar of which there was a combination of "t.co."

According to the researcher, the mechanism for slowing down Roskomnadzor sites is based on comparing addresses by substrings. In the case of t.co, the system looks for a string with the appropriate combination and limits the speed to all addresses with it.

The authorities came up with a new reason to block sites without trial

In Russia, they may begin to block sites at the request of Russians to post false information about their crimes on it. A court decision is not required for this - a prosecutor's check will be enough. The bill on a new measure to combat slander on the Web was submitted to the State Duma by Sergei Boyarsky, the author of the law on sanctions against foreign sites^[32] to^[33].

A group of deputies submitted to the State Duma a bill that allows blocking websites without trial. The document proposes to restrict in this way access to resources that disseminate inaccurate information about Russians related to the unjustified accusation of their crime. In other words, we are talking about libel on the Internet.

The bill entitled "On Amending the Federal Law" On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection "" was submitted to the State Duma on February 16, 2021. At the time of publication of the material, the date of its consideration in the first reading was not established. The authors of the document are First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Sergei Boyarsky (son of a famous artist, United Russia), member of the Committee on Regulations Andrei Alshevskikh (United Russia), head of the Committee on Nationalities Valery Gazzaev (former football coach, Fair Russia) and member of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues Igor Stankevich (United Russia).

Sergei Boyarsky, writes TASS, explained that the bill was developed in order to protect Russians from slander and unfounded accusations of committing certain crimes. "The Criminal Code from December 2020 provides for responsibility for the spread of slander on the Internet. But the reality is that the trial may drag on, and the unjustified, unfair stigma of the offender will remain with an innocent person almost forever. And most importantly, the responsibility of the slanderer does not always mean refuting the accusations, "the deputy said.

2020

Roskomnadzor blocked the site of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance

On September 24, 2020, it became known about the blocking of the Binance website. Roskomnadzor entered the resource of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange into the register of prohibited sites, explaining this by the presence of information on the site that cannot be disseminated in Russia. Read more here.

The Ministry of Digital Development decided to ban Internet protocols that interfere with site blocking

In September 2020, it became known about the decision Ministry of Digital Development to ban the use Russia of request protocols enciphering DNS under the threat of blocking sites. More. here

Roszdravnadzor approved criteria for blocking sites selling drugs

On September 8, 2020, the Federal Service for Supervision of Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor) approved the criteria for blocking medical sites. The relevant order of department registered the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The document indicates nine criteria that may cause restrictions on access to the resource. Read more here.

In Russia, hosting will pay millions of fines for prohibited content

In Russian legislation, in the near future, a norm of administrative responsibility may appear for hosting providers for storing prohibited content. The amount of fines and the timing of the introduction of the bill to the State Duma will be known after the official withdrawal of the Government, Russia reported in the summer of 2020 TASS Information Agency of Russia , citing a statement Alexandra Khinshtein by the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy^[34]

The document provides for the addition of Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) of Russia with penalties for hosting providers for inaction in relation to illegal content - such as child pornography, drug propaganda or terrorist appeals. The document has already received support from the Russian Government Commission on Legislative Activities.

Currently, the administrative responsibility of hosting providers for non-removal of illegal content is not provided for by the current legislation, but in part 2 of Art. 13.40 of the Administrative Code of Russia provides for the liability of search engines operators for search results of prohibited information.

The new bill also proposes to empower Roskomnadzor to initiate cases of an administrative offense against search engines operators who do not act to exclude resources prohibited in Russia from issuing when re-applying.

"Those who do not remove prohibited content according to the requirements of Roskomnadzor (child pornography, drug propaganda, terrorist appeals) will be fined," Hinstein said.

Opinion of the Government

Within the framework of the new bill, it is proposed to introduce responsibility for "failure by a hosting provider or other person providing placement in an information and telecommunication network, including the Internet, an information resource, measures to restrict access to information, an information resource, a site on the Internet" if the obligation to take such measures is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation, "TASS quotes the text of the document.

The Russian Government Commission on Legislative Activities approved the document, subject to revision on the submitted comments for the second reading in the State Duma. Until now, liability for violation of the above requirements is not provided, in connection with which "there was a need for additional legal regulation," the draft recall says.

In particular, the government commission drew attention to the conflict in the issue of determining the subject of administrative jurisdiction. To do this, it is recommended to make additional amendments to the Administrative Code of Russia. In addition, the recall also contains comments on the proposed powers of Roskomnadzor.

"Empowering officials of Roskomnadzor with authority in terms of proceedings in cases of administrative offenses may require additional allocation of funds from the federal budget. Meanwhile, the requirements of Article 83 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation ("The principle of targeting and the targeted nature of budget funds") are not taken into account by the bill, "the Government said in its response to the bill.

According to the requirements of the current legislation, the amount of fines for the first violation for legal entities is 500-700 thousand rubles, for a repeated violation - 1.5-5 million rubles, while responsibility is assigned only to search engines, "sites/resources do not affect this norm," Khinshtein explained the scope of the bill.

The current legislation also imposes responsibility for failure to restrict access to prohibited information on telecom operators providing communication services to hosting providers. Administrative fines provided for in accordance with the current article 13.34 of the Administrative Code amount to 3-5 thousand rubles. for officials and 50-100 thousand rubles. for legal entities.

Roskomnadzor announced the criteria for blocking sites

At the end of May 2020, Roskomnadzor presented criteria for evaluating materials, the publication of which is the basis for blocking the site. The agency published the corresponding order on the portal of draft regulations.

Roskomnadzor will consider the basis for blocking the page "any image by any means of a child performing real or simulated openly sexual actions."

Also banned may be information "on the production, sale or storage of child pornography," "information about the involvement of minors as performers to participate in entertainment events of a pornographic nature" or information about them.

Another area of ​ ​ assessment of information posted on the Internet, which Roskomnadzor plans to apply when considering the inclusion of web resources containing it in the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites, concerns "methods, methods for the development, manufacture and use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances, places of their acquisition, methods and places of cultivation of drug-containing plants.

Data on the methods of committing suicide, calls for committing suicide will be blocked. Sites with certain information about a minor who suffered as a result of illegal actions will be banned.

Resources containing information that has already been recorded in the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites on any legal basis will be blocked. The ban may also include a site that, according to Roskomnadzor, has "descriptions of prohibited information," as well as a domain name, a site page pointer (s) or a network address that allows you to identify sites containing information prohibited in the Russian Federation.^[35]"

Roskomnadzor will block pirated applications for smartphones

On May 27, 2020, the State Duma adopted in the second and immediately in the third readings a bill to block pirated mobile applications. The innovation should come into force on October 1.

According to the new amendments to the federal law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," Roskomnadzor will be able to block illegal media content not only on sites, but also in mobile applications within one day after the application of the copyright holder and by a court decision. In the original version of the bill, the responsibility for blocking was assigned to the authors of the applications and to telecom operators. Amendments to the second reading extended this obligation to application aggregators (in particular, the App Store, Google Play and Huawei AppGallery).

It follows from the text of the document that Roskomnadzor sends a notice of violation of copyright and related rights to the owner of the information resource on which the application is located, indicating the work, its author, copyright holder, name and owner of the application with the requirement to restrict access to illegal content. The information resource, in turn, informs the owner of the application within one working day, who must fulfill the specified requirements within one working day. In case of its refusal or inaction, the information resource is obliged to block the corresponding application no later than three working days from the date of receipt of the notification of Roskomnadzor.

It also establishes the obligation of the telecom operator to restrict access to the application after receiving relevant information from Roskomnadzor.

The authors of the bill were Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party), Marina Mukabenova (United Russia) and Oleg Nikolaev (Fair Russia). More than two years have passed from the moment the bill was submitted to the State Duma to its approval in the third reading.^[36]

Russia blocked Ukrainian state website for the first time

For the first time, the Russian authorities blocked the Ukrainian state website. We are talking about the official Internet resource of the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. This was reported on April 20, 2020 by the department.

The website blocked Roskomnadzor upon the demand of the State Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation. The reason, as stated in the statement, was the news about the concealment of infected with COVID-19 in Crimea and Donbass. 

An article on the website of the Ukrainian ministry said that in Crimea and Donbass there is a shortage of tests for COVID-19, only officials and the military are allegedly checked, patients with relevant symptoms are diagnosed with ARVI, and doctors are obliged to not disclose information.

The ministry reported 10 thousand patients in the self-proclaimed republics (the administrations of the LPR and DPR themselves did not report such a scale). On March 30, 2020 , the LPR reported on the first infected person, and the DPR still spoke about the absence of cases and a large stock of tests.

We are confident that the concealment of real data on the incidence of coronavirus by the Russian occupation "power" in Donetsk and Lugansk regions and in Crimea is just a reason to block the website of our ministry. The main factors of such actions are an absolutely specific position on the illegal actions of the aggressor country in the Ukrainian territories, neglect of international law, the Ukrainian Ministry of Integration said.

According to the ministry's statement, this is the first time that Roskomnadzor, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, blocked the state website of another country.^[37] of the Russian ^[38]]

Although in 2016, at the request of the Tyumen prosecutor's office  , the report of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance on the Holodomor was blocked, the site itself remains available to Russian users. Two more links were blocked by the Ministry of Internal  Affairs, but the state sites themselves are available by April 22, 2020, unlike the Ministry of Integration website.

2019

The Central Bank will begin to block the sites of pyramids and fraudulent financial organizations in the fall

This was reported in August 2019 by the authors of the bill securing such a right for the regulator - the heads of the relevant committees of the State Duma and the Federation Council Anatoly Aksakov and Nikolai ^[39].

Soon, the Bank of Russia will have the right to close the sites of illegal financial organizations before the court. The regulator expects the final adoption of the relevant bill, approved in the first reading back in January 2019 and received a positive government review, in the autumn session.

As a result, the Central Bank will be able to directly send an application to restrict the work of online resources to Roskomnadzor and will receive the authority to file a lawsuit against the site for violation of "the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of an indefinite circle of persons."

A. Aksakov said that the draft proposed that the decision to block be "solely made by the chairman of the Central Bank" and it was carried out immediately, since it is necessary to act "quickly and decisively" against the attackers.

Today, to block the site of a fraudulent financial organization, the Central Bank must apply to the prosecutor's office, and that, in turn, to the court. In case of a positive decision, Roskomnadzor enters a resource into the register of prohibited ones and orders Internet providers to restrict access to it.

As two participants in the financial market and a source close to the Central Bank said, the bill raised objections. The Ministry of Internal Affairs fears that the expansion of the powers of the regulator will prevent it from carrying out operational-search measures, and in the future will take part of the powers of law enforcement agencies. The Ministry of Communications allegedly opposed the increase in the load on Roskomnadzor, and also negatively relate to the need to share their powers to control the Internet.

The Russian government has developed criteria for blocking sites

On August 16, 2019, it became known that the government had developed assessment criteria according to which various departments will make decisions on classifying sites as prohibited in Russia. The criteria will be approved by a joint order of Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rospotrebnadzor, the Federal Tax Service, Rosalkogolregulirovanie and Rosmolodezh. It is for these departments that these norms are being developed.

As of August 16, 2019, the document is on public discussion, which will last until August 29, 2019.

In particular, the document defines the criteria for assessing child pornography. The prohibited materials include the image of children in the process of real or staged sexual actions, as well as the image of their genitals for sexual purposes.

The ban includes information on the production, distribution, acquisition and storage of child pornography. Also prohibited is information about attracting children to participate in entertainment events of a pornographic nature, if there are contacts of the organizers. This includes any ads, posters, articles, audio and videos. In addition, prohibited information includes information aimed at arousing sexual feelings towards children or justifying sexual behavior towards children.

The document also contains criteria for assessing information on drugs, psychotropic substances and potentially dangerous psychoactive substances. Information will be prohibited if it describes the manufacture or use of such substances, "except for works of historical, scientific, artistic and cultural value to society."

Instructions on how to grow narcotic plants, cultivate them, increase yields, as well as information on places of cultivation and wild growth, including instructions on how to get there, are also subject to prohibition. It also prohibits information about how to evade responsibility for drug offenses and information about where, how and at what price they can be bought. In addition, information that encourages or arouses interest in the manufacture, use and distribution of drugs, as well as forming a positive image of persons who are engaged in this, will be prohibited.

Information about how to commit suicide is also prohibited, as are calls for it. In particular, it is forbidden to describe suicide by any means, including text, images, audio and videos. You cannot specify a suitable place and time for this.

A call to commit suicide is considered information where there is an appropriate proposal, request, order - all this is also prohibited.

The ban includes offers to take part in a gambling game or lottery, including text, images, etc. It is also forbidden to describe by any means the terms and conditions of the game or lottery, describe the methods of transferring funds and demonstrate participation.

The ban includes all resources where you can take part in a gambling or lottery, transfer funds or receive a win, as well as sites where there are ads indicating such resources, information or software to access them, as well as the ability to download software for direct participation.

According to the document, information about places of purchase, prices and methods of obtaining alcohol, if the sale is carried out remotely, falls under the ban. Shipping offers and guidelines for choosing a method, means and place of delivery are prohibited. Information on how to purchase alcohol on prepayment is also prohibited.

If the seller of alcohol informs on the Internet about the possibility of purchasing his products, the site must provide information about the seller, including the name, TIN and location of the physical store, even if the retail sale of his product does not need a license. If a license is needed, the license number is also indicated. If this is a farmer or individual entrepreneur who produces wine, you need to indicate where the production is located. Without all this, the resource will be banned.

The ban also applies to sites where you can choose alcohol that requires or does not require a license, and place an order for it with the ability to transfer goods outside the store, or buy without familiarizing yourself with the product in the store.

The criteria prohibit the dissemination of information about the methods, methods and intention to commit offenses against life and health with the participation of minors, including the use of weapons, explosives, in schools and places intended for mass stays of children.

It is impossible to disseminate information about the methods and intentions of humiliating the honor and dignity of children, extortion in schools, beating, participation in mass fights, driving on footboards and roofs of wagons, achieving intoxication as a result of inhalation of non-prohibited chemical compounds. Calls for all these actions, any depiction of them, popularization, justification, positive assessment and heroization are also prohibited.

Also prohibited information justifying violence and cruelty to people and animals, or popularizing criminal communities, glorifying their activities^[40].

Roskomnadzor introduces a mechanism that accelerates the blocking of prohibited content

Roskomnadzor, together with telecom operators, is introducing a new mechanism for obtaining information from the list of prohibited sites on operator networks. According to TASS, the Information Agency of Russia (July 2019), this mechanism will speed up the process of blocking illegal resources.

According to Roskomnadzor, the technology is already used on networks of about 850 large and trunk telecom operators. About 20 more operators are testing the technology on networks.

One of the main advantages of the mechanism is the ability for telecom operators to receive not the entire data array from the Unified Register, but only new or changed information. Thanks to this, the speed of response of operators to the requirement to restrict access to new sites or resources that have changed their network addresses is increased by five times.

Telecom operators can also switch to the new technology, on whose networks the traffic filtering systems previously tested by Roskomnadzor are installed. These include, in particular, the Equila, Barrier, EcoFilter, SCAT DPI, Carbon Reductor DPI, ZapretService, Tiksen-Block, ADM Filter, Ideco Selecta and Cyber ​ ​ Filter systems.

Operators using the above filtering systems will be able to implement a new unloading mechanism without individually modifying the traffic filtering systems.

The court decided to recover 415 thousand rubles from Roskomnadzor for illegal blocking of the domain

On June 20, 2019, it became known that the City Arbitration Court Moscow considered in a court hearing the case on the claim of an individual entrepreneur Arsen Valerievich Mirzayan (OGRNIP 311501235700039) against the Republic Office Roskomnadzor , Tatarstan the federal service of Roskomnadzor and JSC domain Registrar of Names. Reg.ru The plaintiff demanded to recover from the named organizations the losses caused to him by the suspension of the delegation of the domain name of the огрн.онлайн for the period from November 24, 2016 to July 18, 2017, the administrator of which is the entrepreneur. The plaintiff equated the amount of recovery to lost profit in the amount of 4 million 984 thousand 179.38. rubles

According to the materials of the document, the requirement of the Office of Roskomnadzor in the Republic of Tatarstan No. 9633-04/16 of November 22, 2016 contained a decision to remove the delegation of the domain name огрн.онлайн. This decision was then appealed by Arsene Mirzayan, but her satisfaction was denied, as expressed in the demand of January 24, 2017 No. 08AP-7160.

The Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow, by a decision of June 13, 2017, decided to declare illegal the decision of the Office of Roskomnadzor in the Republic of Tatarstan (Tatarstan) to remove the delegation of the domain name of the огрн.онлайн; oblige the Office of Roskomnadzor in the Republic of Tatarstan to eliminate the violation of the rights and legitimate interests of Aresn Mirzayan by sending a decision to REG.RU LLC to cancel requirement No. 9633-04/16 of 22.11.2016. notifying you to resume domain name delegation огрн.онлайн. This decision was subsequently challenged in the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal of the city of Moscow and its decision of October 4, 2017 was upheld.

Domain delegation was restored on July 19, 2017. According to the plaintiff, the loss of site traffic caused by more than a half-year suspension of delegation led to losses in the form of lost revenue from advertising posted on the site. The plaintiff twice appealed to the defendants with pre-trial claims for damages, but the claims were not satisfied. In this regard, Arsen Mirzayan filed a lawsuit with the arbitration court.

Following the consideration of the case, the court decided to satisfy the claim in part and recover from the Office of Roskomnadzor in the Republic of Tatarstan, the federal service of Roskomnadzor jointly losses in the amount of 415 thousand 603 rubles, as well as the cost of paying the state duty in the amount of 11 thousand 312 rubles.^[41]

Rosmolodezh and FSSP received the right to block sites

In April 2019, Rosmolodezh and the Federal Bailiff Service were added to the number of "Internet censors."

2016: Pre-trial blocking of GolosIslama.com for reprinting material from the BBC Russian Service

The main problem for the Internet media in Russia is pre-trial blocking. The editors discover the lack of access to the pages of their media, begin to frantically find out what happened.

At the beginning of 2016, several articles appeared on the GolosIslama.com website on topical socio-political topics: the war in Syria, the life of Russian immigrants in Turkey, and attitudes towards Russia abroad. The materials were widely discussed by users of the site. Among the comments was a provocative recording calling for "an armed struggle against the enemy."

In early February 2016, the owner of the resource Dmitry Chernomorchenko suddenly found out that the site blocked in Russia. He sent letters demanding to explain the reason for blocking the hosting company, the Prosecutor General's Office and Roskomnadzor, but did not receive an answer on the merits.

In May, Dmitry, with the support of the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, went to court. The reason for the blocking was revealed. It turned out that the Prosecutor General's Office appealed to Roskomnadzor with a demand to restrict access to the site's materials not only because of the comment, but also because of the publications themselves. One of them was reprinted from the website of the BBC Russian Service - its original is still in the public domain, no claims were made against it. Roskomnadzor blocked the site, but did not send a notification to its owner. At the trial, a representative of the department explained this by a "technical failure."

To unblock the site, Dmitry was forced to delete publications, although, as he emphasizes, he categorically disagrees with their designation as extremist. Access to the resource was restored by most providers in early July 2016. And the country's largest telecom operator Rostelecom, for some unknown reason, unblocked the site only in November. Later, the website owner's complaint was sent to the ECHR.

What to do if your site is blocked. Instruction

First, decide whether you agree with Roskomnadzor. If you think that the information really violates Russian law, then it can be edited or deleted. You have a day for this. After that, you need to inform Roskomnadzor that you have fulfilled his requirements. Even if you have been blocked during this time, access to the resource must be restored.

But if you think the claim is unfounded, go to court. In it, you can challenge the decision to declare information prohibited for distribution. However, in this case, you must understand that the trial will take a long time and its result is not obvious. And if you are blocked not one page, but the entire site, this will lead to bad consequences for your project^[42]

If the site was blocked without notification, first of all you need to find out the reason for the blocking.

OPTION 1. You can try to find out the reason yourself. On the website of Roskomnadzor there are several registers of blocked resources - for various violations. You need to check all the registries. If your site is found in any of them, you will find there the name of the court or department that made the blocking decision and the date of this decision. The solution itself is not placed in the registry, but sometimes a link is published to the page where the information that caused the blocking is contained. Then you can delete it and inform Roskomnadzor about it so that it returns access to your site. Or, if they disagree, appeal the blocking in court.

OPTION 2. You were unable to find out the reason for the lock yourself. Then you need to make a request to Roskomnadzor. The department should report which publication caused the claims. What to do next - you already know.

Did Roskomnadzor ignore your request? Or after deleting controversial information, your site remains unavailable? Then there is only one possibility - to go to court.

Unfortunately, the mechanisms prescribed in laws and by-laws do not always work. Since 2012, the sites "Каспаров.ру," "Daily Magazine" and "Грани.ру" have been blocked in Russia. All these years, their owners through the courts tried to find out why they were specifically blacklisted.

It turned out that the owners of blocked resources fell into a vicious circle. They argued that they were ready to remove illegal content. But neither the Prosecutor General's Office nor Roskomnadzor provided information about specific pages with illegal information. And the courts? The courts said they could not unblock the resources because their owners did not provide evidence that they had deleted the prohibited information. Complaints about the decisions of Russian courts are already being considered by the ECHR.

See also

• Rules for the work of the media in Russia

• Copyright on the Internet
• Internet censorship. World experience
• Censorship (control) on the Internet. China experience
• Censorship (control) on the Internet. Experience of Russia, Roskomnadzor, GRCC
• Runet Regulation Act
• VPN and privacy (anonymity, anonymizers)
• Autonomous Sovereign Internet in Russia
• SORM (System of operational-search measures)
• State System for Detection, Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Computer Attacks (State system of detection, prevention and elimination of consequences of computer attacks)
• National Internet Traffic Filtering System (NaSFIT)
• Yastreb M Statistika of telephone conversations
• How to get around internet censorship at home and in the office: 5 easy ways
• Auditor - site blocking control system in Russia

Notes