Censorship (control) on the Internet Experience of Russia

Main article: Censorship (control and anonymity) on the Internet. World experience

Autonomous Internet in Russia

Read more: Autonomous sovereign internet in Russia

Requests from security officials for telephone and bank data in Russia

Main article: Requests from security officials for telephone and bank data in Russia

SORM (System of operational-search measures)

• SORM (System of operational-search measures)

Roskomnadzor's policy on Internet control

• Roskomnadzor's policy on Internet control

2024: The State Duma proposed to block a video on Runet demonstrating cruelty and violence

In Runet, publications in social networks should be blocked video with a demonstration of murders, torture and scenes of violence. Anatoly Vyborny, deputy chairman of the State Duma's security committee from the United Russia faction, addressed such a proposal to the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev. According to the deputy, the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall showed that there are no boundaries for the distribution of such content on social networks, including Telegram channels, despite the fact that it threatens the psyche of citizens - especially minors. This was announced on April 1, 2024 by the press service of the State Duma deputy RFAnton Nemkin.

Such content should only be available to law enforcement and investigative agencies, which, based on its study, will investigate crimes. Otherwise, it can negatively affect the mood in society and the fragile psyche of our youth. That is why it is important to quickly block such destructive information, - explained Vyborny, his words are quoted by Izvestia.

At the end of 2023, a bill was also submitted to the State Duma with amendments to the law on the media, which provides for a ban on the demonstration in news television programs and on the Internet of scenes of cruelty, physical or mental violence when committing crimes by persons under 18 years old. It is planned that in June 2024 the State Duma will consider it in the first reading.

In early April, a bill banning trash streams will also be considered in the second and third readings, the head of the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy Artem Metelev said earlier.

According to the to data Roskomnadzor administration of social networks in 2023, at the request of the department, more than 124.4 thousand especially dangerous materials were removed. Among them are materials containing pro-narcotic content, materials with suicidal content and children's, pornography as well as materials extremist terrorist and characters.

To promptly restrict access to illegal information, Roskomnadzor also interacts with the administrations of Russian social networks - VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, MoiMir, Rutube. As part of the working interaction between social networks and the department, 112.2 thousand publications were removed.

In particular, working interaction with the VKontakte administration for 2023 made it possible to quickly remove 1.9 thousand materials of an extremist and terrorist nature. In 2024, 1.1 thousand such publications were removed, Anton Nemkin recalled.

The distribution of any content that demonstrates cruelty, violence, bullying, bullying is categorically unacceptable, any such videos and materials should be blocked as quickly as possible, using all possible technologies. Therefore, I personally very much support the initiatives of colleagues who have taken up the development of measures aimed at protecting users from such content. Especially children, on whom watching such broadcasts can have a negative impact, harm their psyche, lay the wrong idea that such behavior is normal, the deputy emphasized.

Of course, access to such videos should be limited immediately in order to prevent their further distribution, Anton Nemkin is sure. Such content is often published with a note about the age limit, but it is very easy to bypass these obstacles, so such mechanisms do not work to protect users.

In my opinion, the work on blocking cruel content needs to be automated - certain algorithms and systems should be used that will allow you to quickly identify such content on the network and carry out response measures. Roskomnadzor, for example, already has the Okulus system, which just reveals violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation in images and video materials. Before its launch, experts analyzed images and videos mainly manually, and now it is possible to analyze more than 200 thousand images per day. I am sure this system will also be used to combat cruel content. Moreover, algorithms should also appear not only for blocking, but also for the prompt identification of those who distribute such content, for further prosecution. Otherwise, the distribution of such content, which makes cyberspace uncomfortable, and even sometimes dangerous for Russians, will continue, the parliamentarian emphasized.

2023

VK, Yandex, Sber, Tinkoff and Rostelecom opposed security officials' access to correspondence and calls

The Big Data Association (ABD, unites Sberbank, MTS, VTB, Megafon, Yandex, VK, etc.) opposed the bill of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which facilitates the access of special services to calls, correspondence and any other user information from the Internet or cloud services. This became known on September 6, 2023.

As Forbes writes with reference to the ABD document, if the initiative is taken, not only those structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Security Service (FSB) that carry out operational and technical measures, but also all regional departments, including the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) and the Federal Customs Service (FCS).

The association believes that "the requirements for legality and validity in these units are significantly lower." It is also unclear how this "legality and validity" will be checked. This means that there is a risk of violating the rights of citizens and companies.

In addition, the law will undermine "existing security architectures in technological systems and data centers" and thereby may negatively affect the operation of information systems and critical infrastructure facilities, warns ABD.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs published amendments to the law "On operational-search activities" in August 2023, citing an increase in the number of cybercrimes and their poor disclosure. According to the legislation in force by September 6, 2023, in order to gain access to correspondence, law enforcement agencies are obliged to make a request to the FSB through the central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and obtain court permission.

The adoption of the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will lead to a multiple increase in the risk of personal data leaks, correspondence and calls, said Karen Ghazaryan, Director General of the Institute for Internet Research. The Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes to expand the number of law enforcement officers with access to correspondence to almost any opera, he adds.^[1]

In Russia, the police will be able to receive data from the servers of data centers before the court decision

In mid-August 2023 MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Russia , it submitted amendments to the law "On Operational-Search Activities (ORD)," allowing to equate any information transmitted via the Internet with the data necessary for investigative actions.

The explanatory note to the project states that data, including text messages, can be obtained from servers in data centers, from cloud storage and other electronic media. The need for remote access to information is explained by the widespread spread of Internet crimes, in particular, using private networks (VPN).

By mid-August 2023, in order to gain access to messages from citizens who are secret correspondence, law enforcement officers need an appropriate court decision. However, the amendments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will simplify this procedure, reduce the time and allow you to immediately start researching information. Lawyers interviewed by Kommersant believe that these changes can lead to abuse by law enforcement agencies.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not respond to the newspaper's request, the interlocutor in law enforcement agencies explained that the main goal of the amendments is to officially "include the Internet and other means of communication in the list of what can be investigated within the framework of the ORD." Major carriers declined to comment. Igor Mikhailov, a specialist at the Laboratory of Computer Forensics F.A.S.S.T. (formerly Group-IB), said that by August 2023 it was problematic for security officials to attribute to the ORD, for example, the assurance of the contents of a web page or correspondence on the forum, and therefore "it is impossible to use them to prove a crime." According to Mikhailov, the amendments will eliminate the legal conflict when foreign IT companies store the data of Russians physically outside Russia, and police officers have the right to work on its territory by law.^[2]

A law has been passed prohibiting foreigners from owning news aggregators in Russia

On July 26, 2023, the State Duma at a plenary session adopted in the third (final) reading a bill that prohibits foreign citizens from owning domestic news aggregators. Amendments are made to the laws "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" and "On Communications."

According to the document, the owners of news sites are prohibited from acting:

• a foreign country;
• an international organization;
• a foreign legal entity;
• a Russian legal entity with foreign participation;
• a foreigner or citizen of Russia holding citizenship of another state.

In accordance with the bill, a controlling stake (more than 50%) in Russian news aggregators should belong to Russian citizens.

After the entry into force of the bill (it is expected that this will happen in December 2023), the owners of news aggregators will be required to bring their constituent documents in line with the established requirements no later than six months after its entry into force. The restrictions are necessary to "prevent a threat to public order in Russia and thereby create favorable conditions for the development of civil society," the authors of the document noted.

The bill was submitted to the State Duma back in October 2018 by a group of deputies headed by Anton Gorelkin (United Russia). He associated the initiative with "ensuring the safety of personal data" at a higher level. According to the authors of the initiative, news aggregators have the same informational impact on the country's population as the media. As stated in the explanatory note, the proposed restrictions are similar to those that have been in effect for the media since 2016. The sanction for failure to comply with the requirements proposed by the bill is to restrict access on the territory of the Russian Federation to the news aggregator by a court decision.^[3]

Russian websites will be banned from registering by foreign mail

On July 25, 2023, the State Duma adopted amendments that prohibit registration on Russian sites to a foreign email address. The author of the initiative is deputy Anton Gorelkin.

The law provides for four legal methods of registration:

• by the telephone number of the Russian operator;
• through the portal "Public services";
• through the Unified Biometric System;
• through another information system owned by a citizen Russia or a Russian company.

Russian services, such as VKontakte, or mail from Russian services, for example, will be considered a "different information system, Mail.ru the head of the committee, Alexander Khinshtein, explained to Vedomosti. He stressed that registration using the postal addresses of foreign services will be prohibited. The initiative has already been discussed with business, the deputy assured, but did not explain with which specific companies.

With the help of, for example, gmail.com (postal service Google - "MK"), it will be impossible to register. It will also be impossible Apple ID to register through, but there is no problem doing this through the app store, "Hinstein RuStore explained.

At the same time, those who have already been registered on Russian sites using foreign e-mail at the time of the adoption of the amendments will not have to authenticate again. You need to create a Russian mail or account in the domestic social network for all subsequent new registrations on network resources. Khinshtein called the development of the amendments a continuation of the systematic work to protect the personal data of Russians.

This is done in order to avoid uncontrolled circulation of personal data. When this data falls on foreign resources, anything can happen to them. We are talking about personal data and other sensitive information. Therefore, the legislator believes that this should be in the Russian field, - said the head of the Duma committee on information policy.[4]

2022

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.

According to the document, the ban included "information promoting non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences, pedophilia, gender change." Thus, LGBT propaganda and information promoting, for example, pedophilia or gender reassignment also became the basis for entering sites or pages of sites into the register.

Earlier in December 2022, the president Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations, gender reassignment and pedophilia. Now such propaganda is completely prohibited in advertising and social networks MEDIA, cinema. In particular, a rental certificate will not be issued for a film where they will find propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations or preferences, gender change, pedophilia. For violation of the law, individuals face a fine of up to 800 thousand, rubles officials - up to 800 thousand rubles, legal entities - up to 10 million rubles.

At the same time, Russian users of social networks will not be responsible for other people's comments on their pages if they contain LGBT propaganda, RIA Novosti notes.

The VKontakte page is not your property - you are a tenant, even if you use illegal social networks recognized in the Russian Federation, then you are also a tenant. Therefore, responsibility for bloggers for what happens on their page or in the comments is not due, - said in November 2022 the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein.

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of 24.12.2022 No. 2412 "On Amending the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 26, 2012 No. 1101"

Russia banned the use of foreign messengers to provide banking services

On December 21, 2022, the State Duma in the third (final) reading adopted a law prohibiting the transfer of personal data in foreign messengers when providing state and banking services or fulfilling a government task. Amendments are made to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection." Read more here.

Russian received 2 years in prison for distributing a program based on SQLmap

In October 2022, the Akhtubinsky District Court sentenced in a criminal case against a local resident who was accused of committing a crime under Part 2 of Art. 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (creation and distribution of a malicious computer program committed out of selfish interest). Read more here.

Roskomnadzor blocked the online music platform SoundCloud

October 1, 2022 Russia in blocked the music streaming service on SoundCloud demand of State Offices of Public Prosecutor September 22. More. here

Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive

Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive. This became known on May 16, 2022. Read more here.

The Union of Journalists of Russia demands to "take action" against Google and Youtube

The Union of Journalists of Russia intends to appeal to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Prosecutor General's Office and Roskomnadzor with a request to take measures against Google and YouTube due to censorship. This became known on March 24, 2022 from the words of the head of the SJR Vladimir Solovyov.

We prepared an appeal to the Foreign Ministry, to the Prosecutor General's Office, to Roskomnadzor. YouTube video hosting, owned by Google, has repeatedly censored Russian media. According to Roskomnadzor, since 2020, various restrictions on Russian media have been applied on YouTube 54 times, among the censored were channels of Russian independent journalists and media with a multimillion-dollar audience, Solovyov said.

In its appeal, the SJR asked to influence the situation with censorship against the Russian media on Google and its video hosting YouTube.

We oppose the infringement of rights and censorship towards the media on a national basis. We are for free access to information from the media that comply with the laws and norms of professional activity, - said the chairman of the Union Vladimir Solovyov.

He also stressed that the UJR does not call on the authorities to block Google and YouTube in Russia. But at the same time, it is necessary to give an answer to the biased attitude of moderators and censorship in all norms of Russian legislation.

We call on the Russian authorities not to leave this situation without reaction and to take appropriate measures against Google and YouTube in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, we oppose the infringement of rights and censorship towards the media on a national basis, - added Solovyov[5].

2021

The structure of Roskomnadzor creates a system of auto search for prohibited content for 59 million rubles

In mid-September 2021, it became known about the creation by Roskomnadzor of a system for automatic search for prohibited information in the media, social networks and instant messengers. The corresponding tender was announced by the Main Radio Frequency Center (GRCC) subordinate to Roskomnadzor. Read more here.

Rostelecom banned the use of public DNS servers Google, Cloudflare and the DoH service

On September 13, 2021, information appeared that Rostelecom"" sent an official letter to its units prohibiting the use of public - DNSservers Google and Cloudflare DoH (doh.opendns.com) services. More. here

Russian banks needed automated access to prohibited sites

Roskomnadzor will give Russian banks access to child porn, pro sites drugs and extremism. This became known on September 7, 2021. More. here

Russian Internet companies signed a charter on the safety of children on the Internet

On September 1, 2021, the largest the Russian Internet companies, media holdings and telecom operators signed a charter on the safety of children in. Internet It involves restricting access for them to harmful and illegal. to content

The document was signed by Yandex, VK (formerly Mail.ru Group), Kaspersky Lab, National Media Group, Gazprom Media Holding, Rostelecom, Megafon, MTS and VimpelCom.

President Vladimir Putin watched the signing ceremony via video link from Vladivostok.

"I am delighted that you have come together and are building an alliance to protect children in a digital environment. I thank all the companies that took part in this for such a responsible approach, "the President of the Russian Federation thanked the founders of the Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment.

The alliance members committed themselves "to independently identify and restrict children's access to content that can harm their health and development, remove illegal content, promptly respond to user complaints and other appeals."^[6]

Google removed hundreds of thousands of links from search results at the request of Roskomnadzor

On July 22, 2021, it became known that over the past two years, Google has removed several hundred thousand links from the Russian search service, within half a million. According to the TorrentFreak portal, such an impressive scale of work done is a consequence of very close cooperation with the Russian regulator - Roskomnadzor. Read more here.

Russia entered the top 3 countries in terms of the number of requests from the authorities to remove content on Twitter

In mid-July 2021, Twitter released a report on the removal of content on the social network at the request of the authorities of different countries. In terms of the number of relevant requests, Russia took third place.

According to the Twitter report, in the period from July to December 2020, the service received 6351 requests from the Russian Federation for the removal of materials, which is 29% less than six months earlier - in the first half of the year, the number of requests was measured 8939. It is clarified that the number of requests on the basis of propaganda of suicide and harm to health increased by 64%. 569 requests from Russia were made in court.

In just the second half of 2020, Twitter received 38,524 legal requirements to remove content with 131,933 accounts. Most of all - 16,649 - from Japan. India is in second place (6971 requests), Turkey is in fourth (3749), and South Korea is in fifth (2,644).

Russia was not included in the five leaders of the countries in terms of the number of requests made by Twitter to the authorities to provide information: India became the largest source of such requests, which accounts for 25% of global requirements. In second place is the United States (22%), in third and fourth - Japan (17%) and South Korea (16%).

The presidential administration announced the need to regulate Runet

The Russian authorities admitted their insolvency in regulating the processes taking place on the Internet. Tatyana Matveeva, head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies and Communications Infrastructure, spoke about the difficulties in this area. The ^[7].

She stressed that the situation in the world web is heating up more and more every day, the situation has become almost critical. In this regard, the state cannot leave the Network without control.

"The state began to actively regulate the Internet environment, because the current situation that is happening on the Internet has become critical enough, let's say. And it is impossible not to regulate it, "Matveeva said. The official added that from the point of view of the layman, it may sometimes seem that the state "has become cruel in this part," but in fact this is not so. Matveeva pointed out that about 50% of Russians are loyal to regulation on the Web. Approximately 40% faced aggression on the Internet, and 20% responded with aggression to aggression. If such manifestations are not extinguished, sooner or later it may result from online to offline, Matveeva warned.

The introduction of a traffic filtering system within the framework of the Runet law is one of the priority tasks for 2021 and beyond, the administration employee noted. The authorities plan to finally put this system into operation in terms of the most complete coverage and cross-border traffic, both mobile and broadband, Matveeva explained.

At the same time, the official indicated that strict regulation of the Internet could cause a negative opinion of the population about the activities of the state. Therefore, the authorities are faced with the task of conducting explanatory work, she summed up.

FSB wants to create a universal system for storing encryption keys from instant messengers

In May 2021, it became known about the plans of the FSB to create a universal system for storing encryption keys from mobile applications. The new technology will help security officials quickly access messages in instant messengers.

I would like to draw attention to the counterterrorism initiative of the FSB of Russia to create a universal system of trusted storage (deposit) of encryption keys from mobile applications for prompt access of law enforcement agencies to encrypted information... This proposal is generally perceived positively by foreign partners, - said Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Oleg Syromolotov in an interview with RIA Novosti.

According to him, there are significant threats associated with the expansion of the activity of terrorists and criminals on the Internet. They use technology in particular to raise money, promote and recruit new supporters.

Syromolotov clarified that in the context of using popular messengers, "a serious challenge is the use of end-to-end encryption in them." It complicates the operational access of law enforcement officers to data for counter-terrorist purposes, said the deputy head. MFA

He noted that "examples of the use of these tools for targeted impact on certain social groups, primarily young people, destabilization of the situation in countries and regions of the world" have been repeatedly observed.

FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov previously advocated the creation of a system for depositing encryption keys generated by mobile applications. He noted that this is necessary to suppress the "uncontrolled use" of applications by terrorists. According to the head of the FSB, it is possible to develop uniform legal rules for handling and accessing encryption keys only with close cooperation between special services, telecom operators and telecommunications companies.^[8]

For the first time in the Russian Federation, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences was detained for reposts on social networks

On April 21, 2021, the police detained the academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), deputy director of the Institute of Applied Physics Efim Khazanov. According to him, the detention is associated with a repost on social networks about a rally in support of Alexei Navalny. Read more here.

Matvienko proposed to restore order in the Russian Internet space

It is time to talk about clearer regulation of relations in the digital environment to ensure the security of the state, society and our citizens, said Matvienko Valentina Ivanovna^[9] order in the ^[10].

Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko said in April 2021 that the Russian digital space needs clear regulation for the sake of the security of the state and society.

"Digital space often becomes a platform for unfair competition, unfriendly, and sometimes frankly harmful actions. The range of examples is colossal - from the dissemination of fake information to attempts to influence the internal affairs of states, "she said.

According to her, such situations cause serious concern, especially since Russia is an important participant in the global digital space.

"You need to understand that we have no goals to close ourselves from the whole world or build an electronic wall. That's absolutely certain. But at the same time, we believe it is time to talk about clearer regulation of relations in the digital environment to ensure the security of the state, society and our citizens, "Matvienko said.

Google agreed to remove all illegal content

The company is ready to continue working in the domestic legal field and notes the importance of the Russian audience, the State Duma of the Russian Federation reported in April 2021.

Representatives of the company Google expressed their intention to cooperate with the Russian authorities. In this regard, in the near future, all illegal content will be removed.

As the head of the Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia Vasily Piskarev noted: "They showed great interest in our partnership. They noted that Russia plays a large role for Google, they do not want to lose an audience of about 80 million daily visits. " It was about the company's YouTube service.

At the same time, the company previously did not pay very much attention to the requirements of Russia. However, after the "indicative flogging" of Twitter, first TikTok, and then the much more powerful Google began to talk about cooperation and readiness to remove illegal content.

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was offered to arrange an Internet raid on bloggers

The network has strengthened the "genre of semi-legal adventures of potential criminals with video cameras," and a "financial cluster" of criminal and fraudulent schemes of income from "thrash content" has formed around this category of bloggers.

The first deputy chairman of the Public Chamber of the Leningrad Region, Vladimir Petrov, turned to the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev with a proposal to conduct an all-Russian Internet raid to identify bloggers who violate the Criminal Code, traffic rules and other laws [^[11] of the Russian ^[12]].

The representative of the regional OP notes that the society is discussing "rampant permissiveness in the blogosphere." According to Petrov, many bloggers with a large audience and influence on the youth environment "are balancing on the verge of violating the Criminal Code."

As an example of unacceptable behavior, he cited Edward Beale, who caused an accident in the center of Moscow. At the same time, Petrov emphasizes that there is a whole genre of semi-legal adventures with video cameras. Some are engaged in intimidation of people, others organize races in cars, and so on.

He stressed that "a whole genre of semi-legal adventures of potential criminals with video cameras" was entrenched on the Internet. According to him, young viewers are also involved in these processes by such actions. At the same time, Petrov clarified that bloggers receive income for their actions, which are being watched by more and more people.

"In this regard, I ask you to evaluate the idea of ​ ​ conducting an all-Russian Internet raid to identify and block bloggers and accounts operating in violation of the Criminal Code, Traffic Rules that demonstrate clear disrespect for the traditions and culture of the peoples of the Russian Federation, calling for offensive and hooligan actions," Petrov wrote.

If the illegal activities of bloggers are fully proven, he asks Kolokoltsev "to contribute to the approximate punishment of virtual extremals."

ESET study: most Runet users advocate content moderation on the network

The developer of antivirus solutions ESET conducted ^[13] to determine how users feel about content moderation and censorship on the Internet.

In the first phase of the study, respondents were asked how they felt about moderation online. It turned out that the majority of Russians (64%) support content censorship: 45% of them believe that this is a security issue, and 19% noted that there is a lot of meaningless/untrue information on the Internet that should be monitored. Interestingly, almost half of the respondents (from 42 to 49%) believe that Internet providers or cellular operators, as well as government agencies, should be engaged in moderation. Another third of the study participants (32%) think that users themselves should control the Internet space. 10% of respondents opposed moderation - they believe that the Internet should remain a free platform.

At the second stage of the study, experts found out the attitude of users to the ban of mat on the Internet. Thus, 24% of respondents consider the restrictions of profanity on the network to be censorship and have a negative attitude towards this. However, most (48%) users support the ban and call it a necessary measure. The rest of the survey participants do not consider the question important.

More than half of the respondents (56%) admitted that they allow themselves to obscenely express themselves on the network: 46% do it only in personal correspondence, 10%, on the contrary, are not used to limiting themselves and use obscene speech everywhere. 44% of respondents do not use checkmate at all in online communication.

At the third stage of the study, offensive posts and comments were discussed with users. It turned out that 38% of respondents consider them unacceptable. Another 19% believe that administrative responsibility should follow for insults on the Internet. 29% of the survey participants were in favor of freedom of expression.

At the same time, only 13% of respondents take an active part in discussions on the network. Almost half (49%) speak out from time to time when the topic under discussion is particularly important. 38% said they never participate in online discussions. Internet and children have become users' favorite topics. They are followed by proper nutrition and sports. The least willingly interviewed users argue about foreign policy, coronavirus and vaccinations, as well as celebrities.

The court fined Twitter for refusing to remove calls for participation in actions in support of Navalny

On April 2, 2021, the Tagansky District Court fined Twitter several million rubles due to the company's refusal to delete messages containing calls for minors to take part in unauthorized protest actions. Read more here.

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

The slowdown was hit by the Russia Today edition, the Microsoft.com domain, podcaster sites - Beardycast and Zavtracast, subdomains Github, Steam and others^[14].

A slowdown in other resources besides Twitter was discovered by^[15] 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.

Roskomnadzor slows down the speed of Twitter due to the refusal of the social network to remove illegal content

On March 10, 2021, Roskomnadzor announced that it had begun to slow down Twitter's speed due to the social network's refusal to remove illegal content. Restrictive measures will first be "implemented on 100% of mobile devices and 50% of stationary devices."

The department said that if the requirements are further ignored, "the measures of influence will continue," up to the possible blocking of Twitter in Russia.

According to Roskomnadzor, by March 10, 2021, 3168 materials with prohibited information remained on Twitter (including 2569 with calls for suicide by minors, 450 with child pornography, 149 with information about drug use).

Putin: The internet will destroy society if it is not subordinated to its morality

Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2021 at a meeting with participants in the all-Russian action of mutual assistance "We are together" announced the ability of the Internet to destroy society from the inside. This was reported by RIA Novosti

The Internet has already penetrated all spheres of our life, and, by and large, it must still obey not only laws, formal legal rules, but also the moral laws of the society in which we live. Otherwise, this society will collapse from the inside.

Putin called the spread of child pornography and drugs, calls to go to unauthorized actions and pushing children to suicide as negative phenomena on the Internet.

Preparations for identifying Internet users by phone numbers have started in Russia

At the end of February 2021, it became known about the order, which was received from Rossvyaz (in the process of liquidation) by the subordinate Central Research Institute of Communications (TsNIIS). We are talking about a project to introduce a system for identifying Internet users in Russia with reference to a phone number. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor released a mobile application for complaints about prohibited content

With the help of the application, users will be able to complain about prohibited, but not yet blocked information that they found on the Internet.

Beta testing of a mobile application for accelerated filing of citizens' complaints about prohibited information has begun, which will increase the effectiveness of protecting Internet users from socially dangerous content, the press service of Roskomnadzor said in February.

The department said that the purpose of the application is to increase the speed of removing prohibited information from the network by "expediting complaints" from users about it - through the application. The beta version of the app is available on the App Store and Google Play. Access to the service is carried out through the State Public services portal and does not require additional registration.

Roskomnadzor includes illegal content: child pornography, drug propaganda, a call to suicide or illegal actions, gambling, the sale of alcohol or medicines, the dissemination of illegal information about minors and extremist materials.

Social networks want to punish for calls for riots

The commission of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation on information policy and interaction from media suggests to make the changes in the legislation allowing to block social networks for appeals to participation in illegal actions. The commission demands from the Internet companies to take necessary measures for tracking the corresponding content and also considers it necessary to introduce the system of punishments for distribution of appeals^[16] to punish for appeals to disorders.

"This is stated in the statement of the commission, which was presented to journalists by its chairman Alexei Pushkov on Thursday, February 4," TASS Information Agency of Russia reports in January 2021.

"The Provisional Commission considers it necessary to improve Russian legislation in order to prevent the use of social networks to mobilize citizens for illegal actions. The interim commission also considers it necessary to introduce a system of punishments for the above violations - from fines in the Code of Administrative Offenses to temporary or permanent blocking of Internet platforms as such, the statement said. - Such Internet platforms as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok have become a source of dissemination among citizens of the Russian Federation of calls for riots, information aimed at inducing them or otherwise involving them in the commission of illegal actions, including those posing a threat to the life and health of other citizens, as well as unreliable socially significant information disseminated under the guise of reliable messages. "

"During the unauthorized protests on January 23 and 31, 2021, open calls for riots and instructions for participating in them were published on Internet platforms, purposefully inflated figures on the number of their participants, posted false information about cases of violence by law enforcement agencies, personal data of their employees were published in the public domain, hatred was intensified against citizens who did not support the riots, "the statement said.

In addition, the commission recorded cases of restriction of the dissemination of socially significant information. According to the conclusions of senators, the resources of Internet companies were directly or indirectly used to commit potentially punishable acts. "There are cases of purposeful work of Internet companies themselves to promote protest activity. Technologies were used to prioritize and impose unreliable content on users, aimed at generating distrust of the state system, state authorities and individual officials, as well as at splitting society, fomenting intolerance towards those who disagree with protest sentiments, "the document says.

"At the same time, the personal data of Russian citizens registered on Internet platforms were purposefully used to manipulate their consciousness and in order to mobilize them for radical actions, which was also done by the media, which have the status of foreign agents in Russia. Due to this, some Internet platforms have approached the thin line separating social networks from foreign agents representing the interests of foreign countries, "the commission emphasizes.

The Commission condemns the activities of Internet companies that allow the placement on their resources of messages, ads, appeals and information aimed at attracting citizens, including minors, to participate in unauthorized protest actions. "This practice should be recognized as unacceptable," the commission emphasizes.

The Commission requires internet companies to take the necessary measures to track content with calls for participation in illegal protests. "The interim commission requires internet companies to take the necessary measures to track and prevent the distribution of any content that may be considered as support or propaganda of unauthorized protest actions and forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation," the statement said.

Federation Council develops system of fines for internet giants for unreasonable blocking of users

On February 1, 2021, it became known that the system of fines for Internet giants such as Facebook and YouTube for illegal blocking of users is being developed by the Federation Council.

Russia is not yet ready to completely abandon foreign social networks, but their work in should be regulated and not allow violations of freedom of speech and the laws of the Russian Federation, said Alexei Pushkov, head of the Federation Council commission on information policy.

According to him, at the beginning of February 2021, work is underway on a system of fines for Internet giants for illegal blocking of Russian users.

There are a lot of cases of blocking from Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Blocked (the head of Roscosmos) Dmitry Rogozin, blocked (Olympic champion) Tatyana Navka for her criticism of the actions of the protesters on Saturday and a lot of other users. We will develop a system of fines for blocking by YouTube, Facebook, and so on. They will face our answer here, "Pushkov said at a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs.

Earlier it was reported that Facebook blocked the account of Dmitry Rogozin, and Twitter for an unknown reason imposed restrictions on access to the account of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

Pushkov recalled that in Europe Internet giants are treated rather harshly, fines for them amount to millions of dollars^[17].

A law banning checkmate on social networks came into force in the Russian Federation

On February 1, 2021, amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" entered into force in Russia, obliging social networks to delete messages with obscene language.

On February 1, social networks must independently identify and remove illegal content. This definition includes materials containing obscene language.

So, the new law prohibits publishing on social networks:

• pornographic materials involving minors;
• information that encourages children to commit illegal acts;
• data on methods of making and using drugs;
• calls for suicide and data on how it can be committed;
• online casinos and online alcohol sales;
• information that "offends human dignity and public morality, expresses clear disrespect for society, the state, official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation or state authorities";
• calls for riots, extremism, terrorism and participation in uncoordinated public events.

For violation of the new rules, the administration of the social network will pay a fine from 800 thousand to 4 million rubles. In the event of a second offense, the amount of the fine will be increased to one tenth of the total amount of the annual revenue.

Technically, messages in networks have been filtered for a long time - for example, they are checked for extremism, Nikolai Komlev, director of APKIT, chairman of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation for the Development of Information Technologies and the Digital Economy, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. He noted that lexical analyzers are used in compilers and interpreters of source code of programming languages, in checking the spelling of words of natural languages. It will not be difficult to use these tools to search for mat in social networks in any language, Komlev added.^[18]

Russia blocked the Dropmail service, which allows you to create a temporary e-mail for anonymous registration

In mid-January 2021, the Dropmail service was blocked in Russia. Roskomnadzor, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, entered it into the register of prohibited sites.

According to Roskomsvoboda, the blocking of Dropmail "took place as part of the fight against false killings." At the same time, the owner of the service claims that letters can only be received at temporary mail addresses.

The creators of the service indicated on the main page that they were blocked without warning, and created a mirror of the Russian-language version of the project.

Roskomnadzor demanded that TikTok remove calls for the participation of minors in protests

Roskomnadzor requires the social network TikTok (social network) to stop disseminating illegal information for minors and remove calls for participation in protests. This is stated in January 2021 in the press service of the department.

"Based on the requirement of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, a notification was sent to the social network TikTok about the need to remove information involving minors in illegal actions," the message says.

Roskomnadzor drew attention to the fact that materials are distributed on TikTok with "calls for minor users of the social network to participate in illegal protest mass events."

The agency also appealed to all social networks, information resources and the media with a demand not to allow the dissemination of illegal information involving minors in illegal actions.

Thus, Roskomnadzor sent a demand to the management of the VKontakte social network to remove calls for the participation of adolescents in rallies. "In connection with the identification on the VKontakte social network of cases of using accounts to involve minors in unauthorized rallies, the management of the social network sent a requirement to immediately take measures to suppress such actions," the report says on the website of the supervisory authority.

It is clarified that a notice was sent to the social network on the basis of the requirement of the Prosecutor General's Office to prevent the dissemination of information involving minors in illegal actions dangerous to their life and health.

State control of Skype, Viber and WhatsApp planned in Russia

In mid-January 2021, it became known about the intentions of Rossvyaz, which is in the process of abolition, to introduce licenses for applications from which you can call city and mobile phones via the Internet. The introduction of licenses would make it easier for security agencies to control such services, such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber. Read more here.

2020

Putin signed a law to combat the spread of fakes in social networks

Putin signed a law to combat the spread of fakes on social networks. This became known on December 30, 2020.

The main thing:

• the concept of "owner of a public network" is introduced;
• the law applies to owners of social networks with more than 500 thousand users per day. If this number is below 500 thousand within three months, the social network will be excluded from the register;
• the owner will have a number of duties, among which - to create a representative office of a public network in Russia, maintain a register of user applications and provide it to regulatory authorities upon request;
• owners of social networks will be obliged to delete, at the request of users, information for the dissemination of which criminal or administrative liability is provided;
• an obligation to respect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations is introduced. It is also necessary to monitor social networks to identify illegal materials (extremism, racism, information on the manufacture of drugs);
• social networks must post a document containing rules of user behavior. They will be required to inform about changes to these rules;
• if the owner of the social network is unable to independently determine the compliance of the materials with the rules, he must send these materials to Roskomnadzor;

The document will enter into force on February 1, 2021.

Vladimir Putin signed a federal law on retaliatory sanctions for censorship against Russian media on foreign Internet platforms

• Foreign Internet platforms will face measures to restrict access to information on racial, national and political affiliation, it will concern not only social networks, but also large IT platforms.
• The Prosecutor General, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be able to assign the status of discriminating against the Russian media to the owner of the information resource, which will threaten the Internet platform with sanctions.
• The law on retaliatory sanctions against foreign Internet platforms will apply, among other things, to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
• A foreign resource that canceled censorship against the Russian media will have to inform Roskomnadzor about this, after which the Prosecutor General, in agreement with the Foreign Ministry, cancels the decision on measures.
• The law provides for the possibility of blocking, slowing traffic and administrative fines.
• The fine for Internet platforms for censorship against Russian media will range from several thousand to 3 million rubles.
• Blocking and slowing down the traffic of Internet platforms for censorship of Russian media can be applied together with fines, since "one other does not cancel," and blocking individual pages or resources will completely depend on the capabilities of the Internet platform itself.

Russia adopted a law banning mat in social networks

On December 23, 2020, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the third reading a bill obliging social networks and blocking posts with illegal content. As reported in the final version of the document, the ban includes publications with obscenities.

The bill obliges social networks, which are visited by more than 500 thousand Russians per day, to personally monitor the content. We are talking about pornography with minors, information about the manufacture and use of drugs, calls and methods of committing suicide, advertising the remote sale of alcohol and online casinos.

In addition, social networks will have to restrict access to information expressing clear disrespect for society, the state, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as containing calls for riots, extremism and participation in uncoordinated public events. Separately, the draft states a ban on "materials containing obscene language."

The amendment implies that the owner of a social network must immediately restrict access to illegal content. To evaluate the information, the owner can send a request to Roskomnadzor to understand whether it needs to be blocked.

Co-author of the bill, State Duma deputy from United Russia Sergei Boyarsky told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the project should not be considered a complete ban on using obscene language. According to him, no sanctions for non-compliance with the law are provided, and the bill calls on social networks to block it. The head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, noted that in Russia the use of obscene language is an action that forms the composition of an administrative offense.

Therefore, if someone considers that this or that performance, speech, text using profanity offends someone, regardless of our current discussed initiative, this will already be the basis for verification, the deputy explained.[19]

Russia adopted a law on imprisonment for slander on the Internet

On December 23, 2020, the State Duma in the second and third readings adopted a law on criminal liability for libel on the Internet. Changes are made to the relevant article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

For libel on the Internet, punishment is threatened in the form of a fine of up to 1 million rubles or imprisonment for up to two years. Liability is tightened according to other qualifying characteristics. So, for libel using official position, the following are provided:

• a fine of up to 2 million rubles or in the amount of the convict's salary or other income for a period of up to two years;
• compulsory work for up to 320 hours;
• forced labor for up to three years;
• arrest for up to four months;
• imprisonment for up to three years.

The author of the bill, deputy Dmitry Vyatkin, said earlier that bloggers and authors of Telegram channels would also fall under the law. He expects that the introduction of criminal liability will be able to become a "deterrent" for them and will be able to "sober them up." According to Vyatkin, the bill will take into account the difference between slander and insults.

An insult is when a person was called the appropriate words, but at the same time these actions do not constitute slander, this is not deliberately false information that discredits honor and dignity, - said the deputy during the discussion of the bill.

State Duma deputy, deputy head of the committee on family, women and children Oksana Pushkina believes that tightening will lead to a violation of the balance in the legal settlement.

The excessive severity of the provided punishments does not correspond to the principle of justice, which implies in each specific case ensuring the adequacy of the punishment provided for by law, the degree of public danger of the crimes committed, - says Pushkina's response to the bill referred to by RBC.[20]

The authorities will force social networks to block themselves

The State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications on December 21, 2020 at a meeting recommended that the lower house adopt amendments to the law "On Information." In particular, one of the amendments obliges social networks to independently identify and block illegal content from February 1^[21] to^[22].

According to Kommersant, the deputies returned to the controversial bill on the regulation of social networks, introduced by Sergei Boyarsky and Andrei Alshevskikh in 2017. Now the head of the committee, Alexander Khinshtein, has joined the adjustment of the project, who amended together with Boyarsky for the second reading of the bill.

According to TASS, the Information Agency of Russia, one of the amendments obliges social networks to monitor existing content in order to identify and block illegal information. In particular, we are talking about materials with pornographic images of minors, materials that persuade children to commit life-threatening illegal actions, data on the methods of making and using drugs, methods of committing suicide and calls for it, advertising the remote sale of alcohol and Internet casinos.

In addition, social networks will have to restrict access to information expressing "clear disrespect" for society, the state, the Constitution, as well as containing calls for riots, extremism and participation in uncoordinated public events. Also, social networks will be obliged to comply with bans and restrictions on elections and referendums, comply with the interests of citizens and organizations, and place rules for using social networks.

Network owners will not have to allow their use for "committing criminal offenses, disclosing information constituting a state or other secret specially protected by law, distributing materials containing public calls for terrorist activities or publicly justifying terrorism, other extremist materials, as well as materials promoting pornography, a cult of violence and cruelty, and materials containing obscene language."

Khinshtein, writes TASS, believes that innovations should not scare the owners of social networks. According to him, this is a continuation of the line of restoring order on the Internet and clearing it of negative content. "Our amendment is not repressive and offers an understandable, transparent mechanism for the interaction of the owner of the social network with Roskomnadzor. At the same time, we all proceed from the consciousness of the social network itself, slipping to delete unambiguously illegal content is proposed and an exhaustive list of it is given, "Khinshtein emphasized. The parliamentarian noted the right provided for by the amendment to appeal the decision of the social network by users whose pages in it were blocked.

YouTube and Facebook could face fines of up to one-fifth of annual revenue for failing to remove banned content

On December 18, 2020, it became known that YouTube Facebook it would face a fine of up to one fifth of annual revenue for repeated failure to comply with the requirement to remove the prohibited in. RUSSIAN FEDERATION content Amendments to the relevant bill approved. State Duma Committee on Information Policy More. here

The authorities gathered to put Russians in prison for "slander on the Internet"

In Russia, they can introduce criminal liability for slander on the Internet. This initiative comes from the State Duma deputy (United Russia faction) - deputy chairman of the committee for the development of civil society, issues of public and religious associations Dmitry Vyatkin^[23]

The deputy submitted his bill for consideration to the State Duma. At his suggestion, Russians who allowed themselves "slander on the Internet" should spend up to two years of their lives in places not so distant.

In his document, Deputy Vyatkin proposes to imprison Russians not only for libel on the Internet, but also for libel "against several persons, including individually uncertain ones." At the same time, neither in the text of the bill itself, nor in the accompanying documents, this legal structure is not explained in any way.

Despite the lack of necessary clarifications, the bill authored by Dmitry Vyatkin, according to RBC, was supported by the Russian Government. The Supreme Court of Russia also issued its opinion on the document - it says that the amendments proposed by the deputy do not cause, quote, "conceptual objections."

Bill on the right of Roskomnadzor to block Internet resources that discriminate against Russian media

The State Duma adopted in December 2020 in the first reading a bill on the right of Roskomnadzor to block Internet resources that discriminate against Russian media.

According to the project, Roskomnadzor may receive the right to partially or completely restrict access to violating resources, including the ability to slow down their traffic.

Anti-Internet Censorship Bill on Foreign Platforms. Main:

• if the platform blocks Russian media, the Prosecutor General, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be able to assign the status of "allowing discrimination against Russian media"
• punishment for censorship - blocking, slowing traffic and fines from several thousand to 3 million rubles, the court will be able to choose one or several at once, both individual pages and the resource as a whole can be blocked
• Roskomnadzor will maintain a register of violators
• the norm may affect Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

Roskomnadzor asks IT companies to create domestic video hosting sites for Russian media

Roskomnadzor asks IT-company to create domestic video hosting for. the Russian MEDIA This became known on November 28, 2020.

{{quote 'We draw the attention of the Russian media to the need to maintain information channels on domestic video hosting. We ask the country's Internet companies to help our media in their creation and popularization, the report said. }}

The agency also demanded that the American company Google lift restrictions on Anna News.

A targeted censorship policy against the Russian media is unacceptable and violates the key principles of free dissemination of information and unhindered access to it. We demand that all restrictions on access to Anna News YouTube channels be lifted as soon as possible, "the press service said.

Earlier, a group of State Duma deputies and Senator Alexei Pushkov submitted to the lower house a bill on the possibility of Roskomnadzor to block Internet resources that allow censorship against Russian media. The bill introduces the status of "the owner of an information resource involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation." The Prosecutor General, in agreement with the Russian Foreign Ministry, may assign such a status to the owner of an information resource that discriminates against materials of the Russian media. Roskomnadzor may receive the right to partially or completely restrict access to such resources.

As specified by one of the authors of the document, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Anton Gorelkin, fines of up to 3 million will be introduced for violating platforms, rubles the corresponding amendments to the Administrative Code will be submitted to the State Duma later. The bill covers Internet resources - YouTube, Facebook and. Twitter^[24]

Members of the Public Chamber propose to adopt a digital code

Members of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation intend to propose to the Federal Assembly to adopt a digital code combining legislation on the Internet into a single document. The TASS news agency The Russian Information Agency reported this on November 19, 2020, from the words of Alexander Malkevich, First Deputy Chairman of the OP Commission for the Protection of the Information Community, Media and Mass Media.

{{quote 'We are ready in the Public Chamber to propose a digital code of the Russian Federation for adoption. We believe that various norms, laws, bills that describe the existence of the Internet in our country should be combined into a common, single document, "Malkevich said. }}

The digital code also "should be introduced a separate section on the prohibition of censorship in the Russian Federation on media platforms, within the framework of which it is necessary to punish those information intermediaries, owners of sites that violate the Constitution of the Russian Federation."

One of the most important parts of the document is the norm on the need to work in the Russian legal field for foreign IT companies in the presence of a certain number of users in Russia. There should be branches and representative offices with the status of a legal entity, under the leadership of a citizen of the Russian Federation.

Members of the Public Chamber recommend improving the practice of free access to socially significant Internet services in the Russian Federation^[25].

Russia may allow blocking YouTube and Facebook

On November 19, 2020, information appeared that a bill was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, allowing, by decision of the Prosecutor General, to block resources caught in censorship.

In Russia, it may be allowed at the legislative level to block YouTube, Facebook and other services for censorship. The corresponding bill was introduced by Senator Alexei Pushkov and six deputies and will soon be considered by the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Read more here.

The State Duma approved multimillion-dollar fines for violations on the Internet

The State Duma at the plenary session adopted in the first reading a bill on administrative fines for refusing to delete prohibited information. This became known on October 14, 2020.

The initiative, introduced on July 16 by United Russia members Alexander Khinshtein and Sergei Boyarsky, provides for fines for legal entities in the amount of 800 thousand to 4 million rubles, and in case of repeated violation - from 4 million to 8 million rubles. If the information contains calls for extremism, child pornography or methods of obtaining drugs, fines will rise to 3-8 million rubles. and 8-15 million rubles.

As the authors of the initiative point out, as of October 2020, the law also obliges providers hosting site owners to restrict access or delete information, the distribution of which is prohibited.

At the same time, no liability for failure to comply with the specified requirements of the federal law for the above individuals and legal entities has been established, which generates legal uncertainty and creates conditions that contribute to violation of the law, the explanatory note says.

According to, to data Roskomnadzor as of April 2020, about 20 thousand facts of not removing information prohibited for distribution, including child pornography, calls for extremism, a description of ways to create drugs^[26]

Teachers in St. Petersburg were obliged to follow schoolchildren in social networks

At the end of September 2020, the Committee on Education of the Government of St. Petersburg, on behalf of the prosecutor's office, sent a document to the city's schools entitled "An algorithm for the actions of class teachers and social teachers to notify law enforcement agencies when identifying information on the Internet and other sources about the involvement of students of educational institutions in informal youth associations and extremist movements."

The authors of the document propose to pay attention to calls in social networks to change the system, violation of the territorial integrity of the state, calls for terrorist attacks and beatings of persons on a national basis or other faith. Also, teachers are asked to watch publications about the justification of Nazism and terrorism, praising Hitler, spreading false information about the activities of the USSR during World War II.

The Education Committee of St. Petersburg explained that, guided by common sense, the teacher, if such information is found, will try to solve the problem by pedagogical methods.

But there may be a situation when pedagogical methods do not give results. Or, for example, the dissemination of information is not carried out by the child himself, but by third parties. In this situation, teachers have questions about how to proceed. The document sent to educational institutions answers these questions, and also explains what kind of information can be considered containing signs of extremism or terrorism, the department said.

According to the St. Petersburg deputy Boris Vishnevsky, parents, not class teachers, should watch what the student writes on social networks. The obligation of parents is to warn the child so that the next "joke" does not have consequences in the form of punishment. But this is definitely not the business of the school, but private life and private information space, he told Rosbalt^[27]

A fine of 1.5 million rubles for insufficient filtering of content prohibited in the Russian Federation

On September 2, 2020, it became known that Google Russia paid a fine of 1.5 million rubles for a repeated violation associated with insufficient filtering of content banned in Russia. The company was fined for not excluding links to Internet pages with prohibited information from the search results.

The fine was imposed by the magistrate's court of the Tagansky district of Moscow. The decree entered into force on August 7, the deadline for paying fines expired on September 4. By August 2, 2020, the court received a check for payment of the entire amount, which was reported in September 2020 in the press service of the court without specifying details.

The court recognized the arrest for the mark on the publication on Facebook

The court found guilty of inciting hatred or enmity of the environmentalist near Moscow, who was tagged when posting a video on the social network calling for a "rally against fascism" on June 22, while when he saw the video himself, he took off the mark and removed it from the chronicle. The ^[28] as ^[29].

As the lawyer of "Agora" Grigory Chervonny said, on July 8, his principal came to the prosecutor's office of the city of Voskresensk to give explanations on the administrative case initiated against Alexei Kholkin under Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation ("Incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity"). There, Kholkin was detained by police and taken to the city court, which arrested the man for 5 days.

The reason for the initiation of the case was a video calling on June 22 to come to a rally against fascism, which appeared in the Chronicle on Kholkin's Facebook page. The prosecutor's office saw in the publication "signs of an extremist nature and fake news." Experts addressed by prosecutors found in the publication "psychological and linguistic signs" of incitement to hatred of civil servants, as well as signs of fake messages about the coronavirus and methods of combating the pandemic.

Alexey Kholkin in court stated that he did not publish the video on his page. According to him, this was done by another user who, when publishing, put a mark mentioning Kholkin, thanks to which the publication was able to appear on someone else's page. Moreover, as the lawyer said, when Kholkin saw the post, he removed the label and removed the video from his page. To convince the court that someone else's post could appear on the page of any user, the defense even conducted an experiment.

"Nevertheless, the judge refused to investigate the act of inspection, since" the composition of the offense forms the fact of finding a link on the page, and not Holkin's specific actions to post it, "Grigory Chervonnoy said. Thus, the Moscow Regional Court upheld the decision of the court of first instance, and the appeal was dismissed. According to Chervonnoy, the defense intends to file a complaint against this decision with the European Court of Human Rights. And users of social networks in Russia now need to remember that responsibility may come not even for the publication of a prohibited video, but simply for the fact of its stay on the page, even if its owner has nothing to do with the placement of this content, state in "Agora."

Sites promoting AUE will be blocked without trial

Sites promoting criminal subculture and activities to support and form it will be blocked in pre-trial order. Such, according to the RIA Novosti agency, the essence of the new bill submitted in August 2020 to the State Duma by the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation Alexander Bashkin^[30].

As the senator explained, the bill provides for the possibility of restricting access to sites on the Internet containing information that forms and supports a criminal subculture, including the creation of Internet communities. Bashkin explained that the legislation does not contain a detailed description of crimes to promote criminal values, as well as mechanisms for their prevention, which will quickly identify cases of violation of the law using the Internet, send information about them to authorized authorities and block sites if necessary.

According to Bashkin, activities to create such criminal Internet communities are often carried out by persons in correctional institutions. The current legislation contains norms aimed at combating the propaganda of extremism, but does not limit the promotion of a criminal lifestyle and similar ideology.

The changes will affect the laws "On the Basics of Crime Prevention" and "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection." Recall that in March 2020, as part of amendments to the second of these laws, Roskomnadzor put into operation an automatic monitoring system for VPN and proxy services, as well as search engines.

The amendments outlawed technologies that allow you to bypass blocking Internet resources (anonymizers) and VPN services. Roskomnadzor was ordered to restrict access not only to the anonymizers themselves, but also to those sites that contain guidance on bypassing locks. Currently, the system is operating in pilot mode, and a full launch should take place at the end of 2020.

A bill on fines of up to 15 million for non-removal of prohibited content has been submitted to the State Duma

On July 16, 2020, it became known that members of the Information Policy Committee Alexander Khinshteishchion and Sergei Boyarsky submitted for consideration State Duma of the Russian Federation a draft law introducing fines of up to 15 million rubles. for sites and - hostingproviders for non-removal of the prohibited. content

As previously reported, the deputies proposed to supplement the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation with Article 13.41. The purpose of the article "Violation of the procedure for deleting and (or) restricting access to information, information resources, access to which is subject to restriction in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on information, information technologies and information protection" is "to eliminate the existing legal gap in the field of liability regulation for failure to comply with the requirements of legislation on information, information technologies and information protection."

Initially, the authors of the bill did not specify the amount of fines. However, the document published in the Legislative Support System indicates the following amounts for non-cancellation by hosting providers of prohibited content: 50-100 thousand rubles. (for citizens), 200-400 thousand rubles. (for officials) and 800 thousand - 4 million rubles. (for legal entities).

The amount of fines for sites is 100-200 thousand rubles. (for citizens), 400-800 thousand rubles. (for officials) and 3-8 million rubles. (for legal entities).

In case of repeated violation, the following fines are provided: up to 200 rubles. (for citizens) up to 1 million rubles. (for officials) and up to 15 million rubles. (for legal entities)^[31].

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^[32]

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.

Russia will create a contact tracing system with carriers of coronavirus

On March 23, 2020, Vedomosti reported that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications to create a tracking system for citizens who were in contact with carriers of the coronavirus. The system must be launched by March 27, 2020. Read more here.

Russia may introduce fines for social networks for illegal content

The working group of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture, at the initiative of the Safe Internet League (LBI), is developing a bill on fines for social networks and Internet platforms for publishing illegal content. This became known on March 10, 2020.

According to the LBI, this measure will help protect children from propaganda of drug addiction and extremism on the Internet, but market participants warn that it will lead to the development of censorship and put Russian platforms in unequal conditions with foreign ones. Facebook and Twitter do not comply with the requirements of Russian legislation on the storage of data of Russians in the Russian Federation and on registration in the corresponding register, so they are unlikely to be afraid of fines for illegal content, market players say. In this case, domestic companies will be more burdened than foreign ones, which will create unequal conditions for development.

However, according to deputies, Russian children constantly encounter prohibited information on the Internet. Moreover, recently, advertising of sites selling narcotic substances has increasingly begun to come across. Internet platforms have sufficient information about users to display targeted advertising, which means they are quite capable of weeding out illegal content, the deputies are sure.

The initiative to introduce fines for Internet sites for publishing prohibited content has already been discussed two years ago, but was never adopted. Currently, sites are obliged to block illegal information on the corresponding appeal of Roskomnadzor. As a rule, requirements for blocking content are sent immediately to telecom operators, however, if the bill is adopted, "censorship" will fall on the shoulders of the site owners themselves.^[33]

The Russian authorities approved a bill to block dangerous correspondence

On January 28, 2020, it became known that the Government of the Russian Federation prepared a positive draft of the official response to the bill of Senator Andrei Klishas on blocking dangerous correspondence by e-mail. The bill will be supported by the authorities, subject to its revision.

In order to avoid misinterpretation, it seems appropriate to define in the text of the Federal Law the concept of "organizer of the messaging service."

Within the framework of State Duma the initiative introduced in October 2019, postal service operators are obliged, at the request of the authorized federal body, to block the user's ability to transmit electronic messages within 24 hours, if it spreads the prohibited in. Russia information Fines for failure to comply with the law in the event of its adoption will be from 3 to 5 thousand rubles for citizens, from 30 to 50 thousand rubles - for officials, from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles for legal entities. The requirements include, messengers email,, social networks network games, sites, shops, communities, chats, etc.

Earlier, the State Duma did not support this bill. According to the deputies, the measures proposed by the authors of the initiative "did not seem effective," since the similar requirement for messengers already put into effect "is not being fulfilled, and where it is being implemented, numerous ways of violating it have been identified." The^[34].

2019

Prosecutors have secured blocking of sites that traded pregnancy certificates

The prosecutor's office of the Verkh-Isetsky district of Yekaterinburg achieved in December 2019 the closure of eight websites that provided a service for the purchase of medical certificates for various purposes, including pregnancy certificates. Visitors to the site could purchase the necessary document without examination in a clinic or other medical institution^[35].

All sites were freely available, which made it possible to use the service for literally every visitor. The resources were identified by the specialists of the prosecutor's office during the monitoring of the Internet, after which they were classified as one of the sites distributing information prohibited in Russia.

The State Duma adopted in the last reading a bill on a fine of up to 6 million rubles for refusing to transfer encryption keys to the FSB

On November 21, 2019, the State Duma in the third final reading adopted a bill to increase fines to 6 million rubles for repeated refusal for providing the FSB with encryption keys.

If earlier telecom operators refused to bring their equipment and programs in line with the requirements of the FSB and provide a key for decoding user messages, then they could be fined from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. For citizens and officials, the amount of the fine was 3-5 thousand and 30-50 thousand rubles, respectively.

The adopted law introduces fines for repeated refusal and establishes them for individuals within 15-30 thousand rubles, for officials - 100-500 thousand rubles, for legal entities - 2-6 million rubles.

Also, the bill significantly increases fines for owners of audiovisual services: if they allowed the spread of calls for terrorism and extremism at their sites, then for individuals the fine will be from 150 thousand to 300 thousand rubles. For officials - from 600 thousand to 800 thousand rubles, and for legal entities - from 1 to 5 million rubles.

The same law provides for a fine for repeated refusal to store personal data of Russian users on servers in Russia. For an initial violation of a legal entity, they can be punished with a fine of 1 to 6 million rubles, for a second one - from 6 to 18 million rubles.

The law will enter into force on the day of official publication. He will have to be considered in the Federation Council and signed by the President of Russia.

The deputies started developing the bill after Telegram was fined 800 thousand rubles for refusing the messenger management to provide the FSB with keys to decrypt user messages. Lawyers for the international human rights group Agora tried to challenge the fine and declare the  order illegal, but the courts refused them.

In Russia, Internet access can be introduced only with a passport

In Russia, they can allow minors to enter the Internet only with their parents' passports. This proposal was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the Federation Council on November 12, 2019, the Russian Information Agency told TASS. The author of the initiative was the President of the Association of Entrepreneurs for the Development of Business Patriotism "Avanti" Rakhman Yansukov.

Yansukov proposed introducing mandatory registration of all users in Russia when entering the Global Network. According to the initiative, if any citizen wants to use the Internet, first he must present an electronic version of his identity card. Minors will be able to go online only by providing an identity card for the parent or legal representative. This principle should also work in places of public access to the Internet.

According to Yansukov, his proposal will allow "personification of every citizen's action" on the Internet and thus prevent possible offenses. If the offense is still committed, it will not be difficult to identify the culprit. The initiative will also help protect minors and other categories of citizens from the "negative impact of the Internet."

As Yansukov noted, his proposal is not something out of the ordinary. For example, the Austrian government intends to oblige citizens to indicate real names when registering on Internet platforms in 2010.

The relevant State Duma Committee on Information Policy is ready to initiate a discussion of the proposed initiative, but first offers to find out the opinion of the Russians themselves about it.^[36]

The Ministry of Communications did not support the initiative to block e-mail and instant messengers

On November 8, 2019, it became known that Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation did not support the bill to block email for disseminating illegal information. According to Deputy Minister of Communications Alexei Volin, the document "violates the principle of network neutrality" and is technically unrealizable.

The authors of the bill are members of the Federation Council Andrei Klishas, Alexander Bashkin, Lyudmila Bokova and Alexander Karlin. The first time the document was submitted to the State Duma in July 2019, and then again in the updated edition - in October 2019.

According to the proposed initiative, mail services and instant messengers should block users who distribute prohibited information or false messages. For refusing to block the accounts of guilty users of the company, it is proposed to fine up to 1 million rubles. The amount of the fine for citizens should be from 3 thousand to 5 thousand rubles.

The authors of the bill believe that the above measures will help more effectively combat the spread of false reports of explosions, allow them to be held accountable and reduce damage.

On November 7, 2019, the relevant State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications postponed consideration of the bill to the spring session. In November 2019, the document was sent to receive feedback from the government, the Federation Council, the President, the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, the Accounts and Public Chamber and the State Duma structures, the Ministry of ^[37]

FSB: IT companies refuse to cooperate with special services

IT companies refuse to cooperate with special services, the director said on October 16, 2019, FSB Russia Alexander Bortnikov speaking Sochi at the opening of the 18th meeting of the heads of special services, security agencies and law enforcement agencies of the FSB partner states.

The main tool of communication between bandits is still Internet messengers with high crypto protection. In this regard, we consider the reluctance of a number of world leading IT companies to cooperate with special services in the field of information security a serious problem, "he said (quoted by RIA Novosti).

Bortnikov noted that it is through the Internet that the ideologies of terrorism are promoted, as well as processes for recruiting and disseminating information about the methods of terrorist attacks.

In addition, according to the director of the FSB, it became known that there is also a threat of terrorists using wireless communications, which works even without cellular communications and Internet access. He is wary that these technologies can begin to be actively used when committing terrorist attacks.

Alexander Bortnikov called on partners from foreign special services to join the Russian initiative to disclose the encryption keys of correspondence on the Internet, as well as to unite the efforts of national special services to identify and block materials of extremist and terrorist content on the Web and establish cooperation with IT companies for this purpose.

He expressed confidence that the mechanism for depositing encryption keys for mobile devices will provide law enforcement agencies at the legislative level with control over information exchange between bandits and at the same time will fully guarantee the right of citizens to privacy of correspondence, excluding access to it from third parties.^[38]

User email blocking may be introduced in the Russian Federation

On October 9, 2019, it became known that Russia blocking of users email of services messengers and those engaged in the distribution of prohibited services could be introduced in. information The corresponding draft law was submitted State Duma RUSSIAN FEDERATION to members of the Federation Council Andrei Klishas, Alexander Bashkin, Lyudmila Bokova and Alexander Karlin.

According to the authors of the document, it is necessary to extend the rules of the laws applied to instant messengers to e-mail services. To do this, they introduced the general concept of "organizer of the messaging service" and proposed to make appropriate changes to the Administrative Code, providing for the appropriate administrative responsibility of these organizers of services, Klishas said.

In particular, for "failure by the organizer of the instant messaging service established by the legislation of the Russian Federation on information, information technologies and the protection of information obligations," the document proposes to introduce fines in the amount of 3 thousand to 5 thousand rubles. (for citizens), from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. (for officials) and from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. (for legal entities).

As the senator noted, it is also planned to make adjustments to the provisions of the law on restrictions on correspondence - not individual messages of guilty users will be blocked, but their accounts.

Among other things, the document proposes to exclude from the law provisions that contradict the constitution and oblige owners of messaging services to check the contents of emails and assess their legality.

According to the bill, operators should block only the transmission of electronic messages by guilty users solely at the request of the authorized federal executive body. According to Klishas, the innovation will make it possible not only to more effectively combat threats, but also to ensure compliance with the constitutional rights of citizens^[39].

Senator Klishas proposed to identify email users by phone number and block letters with prohibited information

A bill on the mandatory identification of email users by phone number has been submitted to the State Duma. The authors of the initiative are senators Andrei Klishas, Alexander Bashkin, Lyudmila Bokova and Alexander Karlin.

Earlier in Russia, a similar law was adopted on the identification of messenger users.

Another proposal concerns the obligation of postal services to limit the transfer of letters with information prohibited in Russia within a day after receiving a corresponding requirement from the authorities.

"The adoption of the bill will significantly reduce the number of false terrorist messages distributed through email services, create legal conditions for bringing attackers to justice, and reduce economic damage from such messages," the explanatory note said.

Apple announced requests from Russian authorities to disclose user data

Apple has published ^[40] in July 2019, a report on user disclosure requests received from government and private entities between July 1 and December 31, 2018. The number of requests received from the Russian authorities is 606^[41] from^[42].

Most often, Russian law enforcement officers requested data on gadget users or device connections to Apple services, serial numbers and IMEI - a total of 579 requests. Such information is usually requested in connection with investigations of theft, loss or fraud. Apple has satisfied 70% of requests.

Four more requests from Russian law enforcement officers were filed as part of investigations into credit card fraud on the Internet. Only one of them was satisfied. Thirteen of the requests involved Apple accounts that law enforcement officials suspected may have been used illegally. The company provided the requested information in 38% of cases, but the contents of iCloud accounts were not disclosed at any time during the reporting period.

Apple received ten requests from the Russian authorities in connection with violations in the App Store, mainly with the publication of gambling applications in the store. At the request of Apple, it removed ten games from the App Store.

Russia and China agree on joint regulation of the Internet

The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China decided to strengthen exchanges "in the field of legislative regulation of activities in the information space" and jointly promote the principles of Internet governance in accordance with international law and domestic law. The joint statement of both countries was made following a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, held in Moscow on June 5, 2019.

According to the document published on the official website of the Russian government, the Russian Federation and the PRC undertake to ensure the peaceful and safe functioning of the Internet on the basis of equal participation of all states. In addition, both countries intend to "contribute to the formation of orderly management of the global information space."

The parties also agreed to "expand contacts on international information security issues, strengthen measures to protect the security and sustainability of the functioning of critical information infrastructure" and "counteract the introduction of unreasonable restrictions on access to the market for information and communication technology products under the pretext of ensuring national security, as well as unreasonable restrictions on the export of high-tech products."

As indicated in the document, Russia and China will continue to work on the creation within the UN of rules for responsible behavior of states in the information space and "a universal, legally binding document to counter the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes."

The Russian for the first time sued the authorities for blocking a page on the social network

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) recognized the correctness of the Russian user, Internet who complained about blocking his Vkontakte page after he said there that he intends to hold a picket. The corresponding decision was published on the ECHR website^[43] the^[44]

The court considered that in this case, three provisions of the Convention on Human Rights were violated at once - on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the right to effective remedies. The ECHR awarded the Russian citizen compensation from the state in the amount of 12.5 thousand euros, as well as compensation for legal expenses in the amount of 2.5 thousand euros. The Fontanka edition notes that this is the first case when the ECHR decided on the case of blocking pages on the Runet for political reasons. The defendant in the case in the court materials declared the Russian government.

The injured Internet user Grigory Kablis, born in 1976, lives in Syktyvkar. Kablis wrote about his intention to picket Vkontakte on September 21, 2015. At the same time, he informed the city administration about this. The picket was supposed to take place on September 25, from 17:00 to 18:00, 50 participants were expected. The venue was chosen to cross Lenin and Communist streets, behind the Lenin monument. The Kablis picket was associated with a corruption scandal in the Komi Republic, in particular, with the detention on September 19 of the regional governor Vyacheslav Gaiser.

In the city administration, Cablis was refused to hold a picket at this place, since this is prohibited by local legislation, and offered another place allowed. Kablis told Vkontakte about the refusal and suggested arranging a people's gathering instead of a picket, which does not require prior coordination with the administration, but during which posters cannot be used. After some time, the Prosecutor General's Office, without going to court, demanded that Roskomnadzor block Kablis's page on the social network, which was done. As the reason for the blocking, it was indicated that the page posted calls for public meetings in violation of the established procedure for their organization.

Considering the actions of Roskomnadzor unfair, Kablis appealed to the ECHR. There, two applications were registered from him, filed in July 2016 and in July 2017, respectively. The plaintiff had three representatives: a lawyer and a specialist in the protection of human rights from Syktyvkar, as well as a lawyer from Moscow. Initially, Cablis demanded 16 thousand euros in compensation.

It is noteworthy that on September 25, 2015 at 19:00 local time, about 50 people still gathered near the monument to Lenin. The event was peaceful and without violations.

Rosmolodezh received the right to make decisions on blocking sites

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) received the right to make decisions on blocking sites with information "aimed at inducing or otherwise involving minors in life-threatening illegal actions."

Rosmolodezh vested the relevant powers with a government decree of March 21. The document amends the rules for maintaining a single register of prohibited sites.

Powers to make decisions on blocking sites are also vested in: the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (in relation to information on the manufacture and use of drugs), Rospotrebnadzor (in relation to information on methods of suicide), the Federal Tax Service (information on gambling), Rosalkogolregulirovanie (information on the illegal retail sale of alcoholic beverages) and Roskomnadzor (in relation to child pornography, information on methods of suicide, on the manufacture of drugs). In addition, sites can be blocked based on court decisions.

Google began to remove sites banned in Russia from search

Google began removing links to sites banned in Russia from search results, including web resources with unlicensed content. The list of such sites, access to which Russian providers are obliged to restrict, is maintained by Roskomnadzor. In addition to pirated ones, sites with calls for extremism, propaganda of suicide and containing pornography fall into it.

At the same time, as Google told Vedomosti[1], a source in Roskomnadzor^[45], Google is now removing not all links from the registry, but about 70% of them. An anonymous source close to Google explained this by the fact that the company is studying the grounds for which this or that site is recognized as prohibited. In addition, Google, unlike Yandex, did not connect to the registry directly, but agreed with Roskomnadzor that the regulator send him an updated list of sites banned in Russia every day.

2018

Data from the human rights group "Agora"

Human rights group "Agora" published^[46] annual report on the level of freedom in the Russian segment of the Internet. In 2018, courts banned access to more than 161 thousand pages on the Internet, access to another 488 thousand pages was closed without a court decision, for example, as part of an attempt to block Telegram. Agora lawyers say that in 2018 there was a "fundamental turn of state policy in the Internet" and now the authorities have "a real opportunity to limit the dissemination of information."

Sites will be blocked in one day instead of three

At the end of 2018, Roskomnadzor sent notifications to hosting providers about amendments to No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" that would come into force on December 29, 2019. In accordance with them, the period for which owners of sites with detected prohibited content and their hosting providers can remove this content and avoid^[47] is reduced^[48] on^[49].

The text of the notification sent by Roskomnadzor was published by the Esher 2.0 Telegram channel. The notice is caused by the entry into force of the law on blocking Columbine communities calling on children to commit illegal actions.

The law was developed by a group of deputies, including Irina Yarovaya. In addition to blocking columbine communities, the law also changed the timing of blocking sites with most types of prohibited information.

FSB neural network tracks dissatisfied people on social networks

The Federal Security Service (FSB) creates tools for monitoring the statements of Russian users on social networks using deep machine learning mechanisms . Monitoring will be carried out in order to clarify public opinion and identify protest sentiments. One of these tools is a system called Avenir, developed by the Kvant Research Institute, which is looking for those who are dissatisfied with the given keywords^[50]

The description of the system was found on the servers of the Quantum Research Institute by hackers from the Digital Revolution group. The fact that they hacked into the Kvanta networks was reported by hackers on Twitter in early December, publishing screenshots of the list of folders on the research institute's server.

In addition, on the official website of "Quantum," the protesters posted an image of hooded dogs - the logo of "digital resistance," invented by the founder messenger Telegram Pavel Durov. Members of Digital Revolution call themselves defenders of freedom online and opponents of excessive control by Internet the authorities.

Today, the group published four documents on its website, which total more than 300 pages. Hackers claim that the documents were stolen from the Kvanta servers. They are talking about monitoring systems for social networks and the media. The documents date back to 2017.

Recall that the Kvant Research Institute is engaged in the development and production of computer equipment for special and civil purposes, special technical communications and the creation of information protection tools. In June 2018, enterprises were included in the US sanctions list. As a reason, the US Treasury Department indicated cyber attacks against America or cooperation with the FSB of Russia.

Authorities ban foreign-owned news aggregators in Russia

The State Duma approved in December in the first reading a bill introducing new requirements for owners of news aggregators on the Internet. The document in the form of amendments to the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" was submitted to parliament by a group of deputies headed by Andrei Lugovoi^[51].

The work of news aggregators has already been regulated by this law since 2016. Roskomnadzor has been maintaining a register of news aggregators, which includes resources working in Russian or in the languages ​ ​ of the republics of Russia, placing advertising aimed at Russian residents and having a daily attendance of at least 1 million people.

According to the current bill, the owner of the news aggregator cannot be a foreign person. And the total share of foreigners in the authorized capital of news aggregators should not exceed 20%.

Foreigners mean foreign and international organizations, Russian organizations with a foreign ownership share of more than 20%, citizens of foreign countries, persons with or without dual citizenship. Restrictions also apply to organizations under the control of these persons.

The bill also prohibits a foreigner from exercising other forms of control over the owners of news aggregators and their participants, which will allow them to own, manage, control the owners of news aggregators and actually determine the decisions they make.

Any transactions that violate these restrictions will be recognized as null and void. If the share of foreigners does exceed the permitted value, their votes will not be taken into account at shareholder meetings of the owners of news aggregators, and their shares will not affect the determination of the quorum.

In case of violation of these requirements, Roskomnadzor will have the right to file a lawsuit with the court to block access to the relevant sites. The owners of news aggregators already included in the Register of Roskomnadzor, after the entry into force of this law, will have to bring their ownership structure in line with the new requirements within six months.

The authors of the bill note that news aggregators have "an active information impact on the population of Russia." Therefore, it is advisable to apply the same restrictions to their owners as to the media. Since 2016, foreigners in Russia have already been banned from owning more than 20% in the authorized capital of the media. And in 2017, similar restrictions were introduced for audio-visual services on the Internet. The proposed changes "will create favorable conditions for the development of civil society," the authors of the document say.

For "disrespect for the state" on the Internet, Russians will be imprisoned for 15 days

In December 2018, a bill was submitted to the State Duma that provides for administrative responsibility for insulting the authorities on the Internet. The bill was introduced by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society Dmitry Vyatkin, the head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation Andrei Klishas and his first deputy Lyudmila Bokova. The text of the document can be found in the system for ensuring the legislative activities of the state automated system "Lawmaking"^[52].

From a legal point of view, the bill represents changes made to Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. A new third part will appear in this article, which introduces responsibility for disseminating information and materials on the Internet "expressing (expressing) in an indecent form a clear disrespect for society, the state, the official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation and bodies exercising state power in the Russian Federation."

It is also indicated that such an offense "entails the imposition of an administrative fine in the amount of 1 thousand to 5 thousand rubles. or administrative arrest for up to 15 days."

In

an explanatory note to the bill, its authors compare the distribution of such materials on the Internet with the expression of disrespect for society in public places, abuse of state symbols and insult to government officials, for which administrative responsibility is already due by law. "There is no doubt that the Internet is a public space in which the rules of permissible behavior should also be observed, aimed at ensuring public order and respect for society and state institutions," the note says.

Russia banned the use of instant messengers without identification by phone number

At the end of October 2018, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree approving the rules for identifying messenger users. Now only the person on whom the phone number is issued can use such services.

The decree banning the anonymous use of instant messengers, which is posted on the legal information portal on November 6, 2018, will enter into force six months after publication.

 According to the document, instant messengers will be available only to those users who have issued a phone number for themselves. Mobile operators will record in their databases which applications users use.^[53]"

Service administrators will check the correct number. People using instant messengers will not be identified if the data of the mobile operator and service correspond. If you change the information, you will have to go through the identification procedure again.

Operators are obliged to answer the messenger employees in 20 minutes. If the subscriber data matches the information in the database, the identity of the user will be considered identified. After registration, each user will receive a unique identification code in the messenger. The service will transfer this data to the operator, and he will have to enter it into his database. Otherwise, the user will be banned from using the messenger.

The head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, says that anonymous communication in instant messengers makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to work when investigating crimes.

The current government decree is a necessary step towards creating a safe communication environment for both citizens and the state as a whole, he said in a conversation with Izvestia[54]

He also noted that the transition to a new identification system will not require large additional costs from the owners of instant messengers and telecom operators.

Bill to block access to Columbine communities

In October 2018, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill to block access to the so-called "columbine communities" promoting violence among adolescents. The document was developed by 35 deputies of the lower house of parliament, including Irina Yarovaya.

The bill provides for amendments to the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," according to which sites with information aimed at inducing or otherwise involving minors in the commission of illegal actions that pose a danger to their lives are subject to blocking.

At the same time, the bill also provides for serious changes in Article 15.1 regarding the blocking mechanism for most types of prohibited content. Blocking of Internet sites in Russia began in 2012, when Roskomnadzor created the Register of Prohibited Sites.

For most types of prohibited information, the following blocking mechanism operates. Roskomnadzor, having a decision of the authorized body to block a particular site, sends the owner of the serving site hosting-provider to delete this information. The hosting provider has a day to forward this notification to the site owner. The owner of the site has a day to delete this information. Otherwise, the hosting provider, also during the day, will have to delete this information itself.

If this does not happen, then Roskomnadzor will block access to the corresponding resource. In total, the blocking process takes from three days. The exception is the blocking of extremist information carried out according to the decisions of the Prosecutor General's Office: it is carried out "immediately," and site owners will receive notifications of this only after blocking.

According to the current bill, the hosting provider, having received an order from Roskomnadzor, will have to "immediately" notify the site owner of this. He will have to "immediately" delete prohibited content, otherwise the site will be blocked.

If the bill is finally approved, the accelerated blocking process will affect the following types of prohibited content:

• child pornography,
• propaganda of suicide,
• the distribution of narcotic drugs,
• gambling,
• selling alcohol and distributing the names of minors who have been victims of crime.

Also under the simplified procedure will be blocked by court decisions.

The previous blocking procedure, with the provision of the owner of the resource and its hosting provider three days to delete illegal information, will remain in relation to pirated resources, sites that did not localize the personal data of Russians, and do not comply with the requirements of the legislation of the organizers of the dissemination of information and VPN services. This procedure will not affect sites with extremist information, which, as already noted, are already blocked "immediately."

Karen Ghazaryan, an analyst at the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, believes that the adoption of the bill in its current form will have extremely negative consequences for the Internet^[55]

"Anti-piracy" bills from the Ministry of Culture

The Ministry of Culture prepared in September 2018 two bills with amendments to the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" regarding the procedure for blocking pirated resources. The documents are published on the portal regulation.gov.ru^[56] from the^[57].

The meaning of both bills is to accelerate the current procedure for blocking sites that illegally distribute copyrighted content.

The bills developed by the Ministry of Culture suggest that Roskomnadzor will perform its functions to determine the owner of the resource and its hosting provider within one day. Further, the hosting provider will have to "immediately" inform the owner of the resource about the revealed violation, and the owner of the site will "immediately" delete the relevant content.

If measures are not taken, then Roskomnadzor will have to block access to the corresponding resource, and this will also need to be done "immediately."

For refusing to refute slander on the Internet will be imprisoned

In July 2018, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill toughening the punishment for persons who, contrary to the court's request, continue to disseminate defamatory or inaccurate information or do not refute already widespread false information. The document is a set of amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses. The amendments were proposed by deputies of the United Russia and Fair Russia factions. They ^[58].

If a person ignores a court order for the first time, it will be punished with a fine of up to 20 thousand rubles. for citizens, up to 50 thousand rubles. for officials and up to 200 thousand rubles. for organizations.

Now the fines are significantly lower - 1-2 thousand rubles. for citizens for the first refusal to comply with the resolution and from 2 to 500 thousand rubles for repeated refusal - therefore, site owners often ignore court decisions to stop the dissemination of false information and refute it, explained on the State Duma website.

In the explanatory note to the bill, the authors give examples of information, the dissemination of which is usually prohibited by the courts. These can be, for example, publications in the media that violate copyright, or materials that can harm the life and health of children, as well as publications aimed at promoting war, inciting national, racial or religious hatred and enmity.

If, after the payment of the fine, the person disseminating false information still does not comply with the requirements of the court, he is again brought to administrative responsibility. Citizens will be assigned administrative arrest up to 10 days or compulsory work up to 120 hours, officials will be arrested up to 15 days or compulsory work up to 200 hours. Organizations, in case of repeated failure to comply with the court order, will pay fines of up to 200 thousand rubles.

Criminal liability

If a person maliciously fails to comply with a court order or impedes its execution, while the person has already suffered administrative punishment for the same violation over the past year, he will be prosecuted. The corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code of Russia also passed the first reading in the State Duma.

The amendments provide in this case the payment of a fine in the amount of up to 50 thousand rubles. or in the amount of the convict's income for a period of up to six months. Alternatively, the punishment can be compulsory work for up to 240 hours, or correctional work for up to one year. It is also possible to arrest for up to three months, or imprisonment for up to one year.

Extrajudicial blocking of alcohol sellers

In Russia, a mechanism for blocking sites engaged in the remote retail sale of alcohol began to operate without a court decision. This was announced by Roskomnadzor on its website. The launch of the mechanism is associated with the entry into force on June 15, 2018 of government decree No. 651, according to which such sites are entered into the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites out of court^[59].

The decree determines that the sites are entered by Roskomnadzor into the register by decision of the Federal Service for the Regulation of the Alcohol Market (Rosalkogolregulirovanie). Roskomnadzor has already established an electronic communication channel with Rosalkogolregulirovanie, which will give it the opportunity to receive such decisions promptly in order to immediately block.

Since 2014, Roskomnadzor began to include in the Register of Prohibited Sites resources prohibited by various regional courts. In this regard, dozens of online stores selling alcohol at night were blocked. Remote sale of alcoholic beverages was banned in Russia back in 2007, and in 2014 a ban on the sale of alcohol at night came into force^[60].

In Russia, they want to create their own rules of behavior on the Internet

In Russia, they started talking about the need to develop rules of conduct on the Internet. The new Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Konstantin Noskov spoke about them In Russia, ^[61].

'Control, more precisely, certain rules of conduct should be on the Internet, but all restrictions should be within reasonable limits. They should not interfere with business development, media freedom, should not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. Regulation, creation of norms and rules does not mean tightening the nuts, "the minister said on the sidelines of the PMEF-2018." We plan to strengthen the role of the ministry in this area - we will actively participate in the development of policies for regulating the Internet and various aspects of the application of new technologies. There are many such aspects: they include the use of fully autonomous robotic systems, the protection of personal data, state information security, "the minister said.

The official noted that his ministry will actively participate in the Internet regulation process in Russia.

A "white list" of sites may appear in Russia

Special software that provides uninterrupted access to "respectable" resources can be developed Russia in based on the OpenVPN protocol. It is assumed that ON it will provide access to IP addresses from the "white list" and protect them from accidental locks, as happened with many resources in the process of blocking the messenger. Telegram In May 2018, he writes about this with Interfax reference to the president's development adviser. Internet German Klimenko

At the same time, sites using the same IP addresses as "disgraced" resources such as Telegram will not be able to get into the "white list." Therefore, the register will have to be moderated for illegal resources to get there. In turn, the VPN service for accessing them will be distributed free of charge.

"Let's make a whitelist and put it on top of the lock registry. Roskomnadzor OpenVPN is taken - this is VPN only to the pools of IP addresses of resources from the "white list." The task at the same time is to make sure that the "white list" is reliable, conscientious resources do not use IP addresses that Telegram uses at the same time, and distributing this software for free, "Klimenko said.

Roskomnadzor also noted that they are ready to consider proposals to protect bona fide resources from accidental blocking.

Comments Yandex, VKontakte and Rambler Group

Yandex Manzhikov Ochir, Director of Public Relations<…>: An attempt to block Telegram in Russia unexpectedly hit the entire Runet. Blocking affected not only the messenger - many resources and their users were affected. We do not consider this situation normal. The Russian market can develop only in conditions of open competition. Restricting access to global and Russian Internet services will harm primarily Runet. It is the lack of freedom and lack of choice for users that we consider the most dangerous consequence of blocking. The lack of openness and competition in the domestic market not only leads to a drop in the quality of products, which affects users, but also deprives the country of the possibility of technological competition in world markets in the future.

VKontakte Andrey Rogozov, Managing Director: We present the future of the Internet as a safe platform where everyone can be sure of the safety of their data. One of the main technologies that guarantees data security is end-to-end encryption, which occurs on the user's target device. Transferring any keys and gaining access to information outside the device is impossible by definition. This is how most of the world's leading messaging services work. Endpoint encryption provides privacy and protection against third-party access to conversations. We see how, due to a lack of understanding of the principles of the modern Internet, access to many resources is limited. Services used by millions of people are completely or partially unavailable. This limits or complicates the work of businesses, primarily technological ones.

Rambler Group press service comment: Today, many governments are thinking about regulating the Internet. Some experience has been accumulated in the technical implementation of such solutions. On the other hand, the developers do not stand still, introducing more and more features to bypass locks. Such a confrontation can continue indefinitely. There will be no winners. Against this background, technical collisions arise that affect completely innocent users. This is alarming. We live in a digital world. Any technically imperfect external impact on the Internet can affect the lives of millions, and sometimes billions of people. Media, large, small and medium-sized businesses, bloggers, photographers, freelancers, and ordinary people, directly depend on access to technologies and audiences of social networks, their friends, relatives and relatives. Today, even in large companies and government agencies, information technology is tightly integrated into business processes. Thoughtless impact on them can seriously undermine the viability of entire projects and directions. We believe that any such initiatives should be seriously discussed with market players. The opinion of its participants should be taken into account.

Deputy Head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications: the state regulates Runet "excessively" and "chaotically"

Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media Alexei Volin believes that the "excessive" and "chaotic" regulation of the Internet by the state impedes the development of the digital economy. He expressed this opinion at the opening of the Russian Internet Forum (RIF 2018).

According to Volin, the industry suffers if government regulation lacks consistency. Too frequent changes in adjustments in the field of mass communications make the market nervous, and the regulator itself is confused, since it is also difficult for it to constantly and timely rebuild its work.

"The rules are constantly changing: you start playing fool, in the middle - preference, and by the end it turned out that this is actually roulette. And the chips must be given away, "- this is how the deputy minister characterizes a quick change in regulatory norms.

According to Volin, the laws governing media communications should be few and understandable, and should not change over a long period of time. The deputy minister noted that his department intends to conduct a dialogue on this issue with Russian lawmakers, and also spoke positively about the possibility of creating a media communication code.

Another problem, Volin believes, is an excessively large number of various initiatives to regulate the Internet. Many of them will never be implemented in practice, but the very dubbing of "exotic proposals" disorientates the industry.^[62]

The Law on Blocking Resources with Defamatory Information

The law on blocking resources with defamatory information was signed by President Vladimir Putin and entered into force after its publication on April 23, 2018. The document is posted on the legal information portal^[63]

The law provides that a resource with defamatory information can be blocked if it does not delete the information on its own within the period prescribed by the court. In this case, the bailiff must issue a resolution on the recovery of the performance fee from the distributor and a decree on restricting access to the resource on the Internet. Such a decision is sent to Roskomnadzor within one working day after its issuance.

Until now, the Civil Code allowed citizens to demand the removal of defamatory information and the publication of refutations on the Internet. The court could make a corresponding decision in favor of the plaintiff, but the law did not provide for the possibility of blocking the resource if the offender did not delete the information himself. Meanwhile, for other illegal material - such as extremist or pirated - such a measure has been in place for a long time.

On April 12, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the third, final reading a bill on blocking resources on which information is posted that discredits the honor and dignity of citizens or legal entities. This follows from the information published on the State Duma portal. The law will come into force immediately after its signing by President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, the State Duma in the first reading adopted two bills on the regulation of the dissemination of inaccurate information in social networks.

Thus, the first establishes a number of responsibilities for owners of public networks located on the territory of the Russian Federation, access to which during the day is more than 100 thousand users. So, it will be necessary to create a representative office of a foreign social network on the territory of Russia. In addition, according to the user of the social network, it will be necessary to restrict access or delete socially significant inaccurate information presented in it, for the distribution of which criminal or administrative liability is provided. This will be necessary within 24 hours from the moment the owner receives the application from the user. It will also be necessary to maintain a register of such applications and provide it at the first request to Roskomnadzor.

In turn, the second bill provides for the introduction of administrative responsibility in the form of a fine for violation by the owner of a social network of obligations provided for by federal law. So, for individuals it will be from 3 million to 5 million rubles, for legal entities - from 30 million to 50 million rubles. As noted in the accompanying documents, such amounts of fines will ensure the appointment of a fair and proportionate administrative punishment, taking into account the nature of the administrative offense committed, as well as the property and financial situation of a citizen or legal entity.^[64]

In the Russian Federation, messengers were forbidden to talk about their cooperation with the FSB

A number of changes have been made to the way the organizers of the dissemination of information on the Internet interact with law enforcement agencies. This was reported on January 22, 2018 by the TASS news agency Russian Information Agency.

According to the changes made, the administration of the organizer of the dissemination of information (that is, the messenger) should monitor "non-disclosure of any information about specific facts and the content of such interaction to third parties." In other words, the messenger has no right to inform anyone about its cooperation with law enforcement agencies. Also, the Government of the Russian Federation introduced a ban on the placement of software and hardware used in the framework of such interaction, not on Russian territory.

Among other things, from now on, the messenger administration must provide the FSB with remote access to its information system no later than three months after receiving the appropriate notification from the special services.

Organizer of information dissemination on the Internet - a person carrying out activities to ensure the functioning of information systems and (or) programs for electronic computers, which are intended and (or) used for receiving, transmitting, delivering and (or) processing electronic messages of Internet users.

2017

Data from the human rights group "Agora"

The full version of the report can be read here (pdf)^[65]. Here (xlsx)^[66] is available a table of restrictions on Internet freedom in 2017, and here - a map broken down into regions^[67] on^[68].

Results for 10 years

• more than 200 cases of violence or threats against Internet activists, bloggers and journalists;
• five murders and several assassination attempts;
• 1,449 cases of criminal prosecution in connection with online activity;
• 98 sentences to real imprisonment;
• constant increase in pressure on the Russian Internet.

2017 results

• 244 pages on the Internet were blocked every day;
• users were attacked or threatened every six days;
• every eight days the courts handed down a sentence of real imprisonment.

"Agora" counted in 2017 115,706 separate facts of restriction of freedom on the Internet. 110 thousand of them are associated with blocking, filtering or prohibiting information on various grounds. These data are taken from the official statistics of government agencies - according to the Roskomsvoboda project, in 2017, taking into account the accompanying locks, more than seven million resources were blocked (and in just five years of the law on "black lists" - more than 10 million)^[69].

At the same time, judging by the data of Roskomnadzor, the number of sites included in the "black lists" in 2017 "stabilized" - there were 88 thousand of them, slightly more than in 2016 (in 2015, for comparison, almost 50 thousand resources were blocked, and in 2014 - less than 30 thousand).

In 2017, Agora notes, the Russian authorities have repeatedly outlawed new types of Internet activity. For example, the use of encryption and anonymizers began to be considered suspicious activity. The campaign against "death groups," which began in 2016 and continued in 2017, "Agora" calls "the first mass campaign of a criminal law nature, directly directed against the Internet." Its result was not only the verdict of Philip Budeikin (in July 2017 he was imprisoned for three years and four months), but also the addition of the criminal code with new compositions of crimes.

"White lists" in Runet will work in the spring of 2020

The draft action plan of the Digital Economy program under the Information Security section involves increasing the effectiveness of combating illegal information on the Internet and involving self-regulatory organizations (SROs) in this work. The document was developed by the Center for Competence in this area, created on the basis of Sberbank^[70].

First of all, it is proposed to analyze the appearance of illegal information on the Russian Internet, the effectiveness of the use of means of blocking and filtering such information. The relevant research work will include an assessment of the main threats and risks of the dissemination of illegal information, an assessment of its distribution channels, a description of the blocking means used and their filtering.

Based on the results of the research work, it is planned to develop an architecture for monitoring illegal information and recommendations for filtering, blocking and deleting this information on the basis of self-regulatory organizations. It is also proposed to identify the resources for creating such a system and develop a methodology for assessing such resources.

It is also planned to define mechanisms for the regulation, supervision and support of self-regulatory organizations in the field of ICT, including in the field of monitoring the information content of resources.

Further, it is planned to create mechanisms to prevent the appearance of illegal information on the Russian Internet, including mechanisms for its removal on the basis of SRO. To this end, until the fall of 2018, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, together with the autonomous non-profit organization (ANO) "Digital Economy," will select SROs in the region or form proposals for the creation of new organizations.

In parallel, it is planned to develop and approve the regulations for information interaction of self-regulatory organizations in the framework of preventing the appearance of illegal information on the Russian Internet. By the end of 2019, it is planned to implement a project to create a unified system for monitoring illegal information on the Russian Internet based on SRO.

Such a system will provide control over the content of resources on the Internet, including filtering, blocking and deleting illegal information. The creation of such a system will cost the federal budget 290 million rubles.

FSB clarified the requirements for the transfer of keys to electronic correspondence

The FSB of the Russian Federation published at the end of 2017 on the federal portal of draft regulatory acts amendments to the order describing the procedure for providing keys for decrypting user messages. According to the amendments, Internet companies are given no more than 10 days to provide keys^[71] of the^[72].

The FSB order of July 19, 2016 "On approval of the procedure for presenting information necessary to decode received, transmitted, delivered and processed electronic messages" described the procedure for providing keys, but did not indicate specific deadlines. Now the organizers of the dissemination of information are obliged to provide keys for decrypting encoded messages "as soon as possible, but no more than 10 days from the date of receipt of the request."

The order also stated that the request from the FSB should be sent in writing by registered mail. According to the amendments, this can be done through "technical means of communication." In addition, the FSB Center for Operational and Technical Measures will now collect information from companies.

The Ministry of Communications was instructed to create an "independent Internet" for the BRICS countries

In November 2017, the Russian Security Council instructed the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, together with the Russian Foreign Ministry, to work out the issue of creating its own system of root domain name servers, or DNS, in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) by August 1, 2018. In other words, RBC writes, the Security Council instructed to make the Internet in these countries independent of international organizations and outside influence.

The Russian government may get the right to hide information on the Internet

The Government of the Russian Federation introduced^[73]) in November 2017 for consideration by the State Duma, a bill proposing amendments to a number of legislative acts providing for the establishment of restrictions on the placement of information on the activities of individual individuals and legal entities. According to the accompanying note, draft federal law No. 318825-7 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation (in terms of regulating the disclosure (placement) of information on the activities of individual legal entities and individuals) developed "in order to protect the constitutional order, the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and legal entities, ensure the defense capability and security of the Russian Federation, including to ensure guaranteed financial support of state contracts under a state defense order and unconditional passage of payments under contracts within the framework of military-technical^[74].

Russia in the ranking of countries with non-free Internet and media

Russia was among the ten countries that fell the most in the ranking of freedom in the world in 2017 (Freedom of the World 2017^[75]). The country scored 20 points on the freedom scale out of 100 possible, where the maximum number of points is scored by the "most free" countries. Compared to 2016, Russia lost 12 points at once.

The authors of the Freedom House report placed Russia on the list of states where the Internet and the media, like a year ago, remain unfree. The study notes that the country's government has tight control over the media environment and has managed to maintain domestic support, despite the ongoing economic downturn and a flurry of international criticism. Among the negative events of last year, "politically motivated" personnel changes in the RBC holding and the inclusion of the Levada Center in the list of foreign agents were named.

In the overall ranking Russia Belarus , the Arab Emirates became the closest neighbors. The "worst of the worst" turned out to be, Syria the African state of Eritrea, North Korea and. Uzbekistan The highest scores, by contrast, were,, and Finland Norway Sweden Canada.

Anonymizer law comes into force in Russia

On November 1, 2017, a law on blocking anonymizers and VPNs came into force in Russia, which was signed by President Vladimir Putin at the end of July.

We are talking about amendments to the federal law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," which determine the obligations for owners of VPN services, anonymizers and search engines operators to restrict access to prohibited information.

FZ on restricting access to the "mirrors" of blocked sites

On October 1, 2017, Federal Law of 01.07.2017 No. 156-FZ "On Amendments to the Federal Law" On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection "entered into force, establishing the possibility of restricting access to" mirrors "of blocked sites.

Now blocking "mirrors," i.e. copies of blocked sites, is directly provided for by law. Note that we are talking only about "mirrors" of sites that were blocked due to the repeated and illegal placement of information containing objects of copyright and (or) related rights, or information necessary to obtain them. A copy of a blocked site is defined as a "site similar to the degree of confusion" with any of the specified sites.

The decision to recognize the site as a copy is made by the federal executive body, which performs the functions of developing and implementing state policy and legal regulation in the field of mass communications and mass media (Ministry of Communications and Mass Media). The procedure for recognizing the site as a copy is regulated by a separate decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. The motivated decision is made with the participation of at least 3 experts and is communicated to the hosting provider during the blocking process.

Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation: The email operator does not have information in user letters

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (CC) ruled that the email operator is not the owner of the information contained in users' emails, RIA Novosti reports with reference to court materials^[76].

This decision was made after the court considered the complaint of the former employee of Stroytransgaz Alexander Sushkov, who was dismissed for sending mail.ru official documents and personal data of colleagues through the service. Thus, he violated the provisions of the employment contract on ensuring the confidentiality of information. As the employer indicated in the case file, Sushkov sent service documents, local employer regulations and personal data of his colleagues from his corporate address to his external electronic mailbox.

Earlier in the course of litigation, Мэйл.ру was recognized as the owner of the information sent by the user, since, according to the terms of the user agreement, the company can both restrict and allow access to this information, which indicates the disclosure of confidential data to third parties. However, the Constitutional Court challenged this decision, referring to paragraph 5 of Article 2 of the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," which defines the concept of the owner of information.

By decision of the Constitutional Court, the challenged norm does not contradict the Constitution, since it cannot be considered as giving the Internet service the status of the owner of information regarding information contained in e-mail messages. The absence in the legislation of a direct indication of the obligation of Internet services to keep the secrecy of correspondence does not mean the absence of this obligation in principle, and the company's access to information does not mean that it becomes its owner.

"The terms of the user agreement cannot be interpreted as granting the owner of the Internet service the right to independently, in violation of part 2 of Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (the right to privacy of correspondence), allow or restrict access to information and thereby recognize it as the owner of this information," the Constitutional Court said in a resolution.

The State Duma supported the bill on blocking the sites of unwanted organizations without trial

The State Duma Committee on Information Policy intends to recommend that the lower house support the adoption of a bill to block the websites of organizations recognized as undesirable in Russia without a court decision. This is reported by RBC with reference to the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Leonid Levin and a source in the State Duma. On October 24, this bill was approved by the State Duma Council and sent to the relevant committee.

As the interlocutor of RBC explained, after the approval of the committee, the bill will be submitted for first reading at the next meeting. The draft law was developed by a group of deputies from three factions - United Russia Yuri Shvytkin, Spravoross Oleg Nikolaev and Communist Alexander Yushchenko, at the end of September the bill was submitted to the State Duma.

According to the text of the document, after the adoption of the law, Roskomnadzor will be able to independently make decisions on blocking on the Internet "information containing calls for riots, extremist activities, participation in mass (public) events held in violation of the established procedure, materials published and (or) distributed by a foreign or international non-governmental organization whose activities are recognized as undesirable. Moreover, the department will not need a court decision to block it. Currently, 11 organizations are recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation, including the Open Society Foundation and the Open Society - Assistance Fund Institute, the US-Russian Fund for Economic and Legal Development, etc. The full list of organizations is published on the website of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation^[77].

According to experts, the new restrictions can provide the authorities with the opportunity to block not only the sites of unwanted organizations, but also other content on the Internet. The bill will simplify the blocking of unwanted materials, said Internet Alexander Isavnin, an expert at the Defense Society. The proposed initiative will simplify the closure of such materials "by decision of the official, without the possibility of appeal and transparent procedures for exclusion from this list," he said.

Nikiforov called "unviable" blocking on the Internet

The head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov recognized the inefficiency of blocking illegal content on the Internet, RBC reports.

According to him, for any blocking too quickly, a technology is located or invented that allows you to quickly bypass it. The population installs software products that receive prohibited information using servers outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, he added.

Nikiforov also stressed that at present the department "acts in the old fashioned way," but such a system is not viable. It would be more correct to closely monitor who exactly searched for information and accessed this or that illegal content.

Banning non-certified Google Global Cache servers

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) sent a notification to telecom operators in September 2017 that Google was installing uncertified Google Global Cache servers on the networks of Russian Internet providers, used to increase the speed of access to technology giant resources. This was reported by RBC with reference to the letters of Roskomnadzor at the disposal of the publication.

As indicated in the documents, the FSB of the Russian Federation reported information about uncertified servers to the supervisory service. According to the warning of Roskomnadzor, providers who allowed the installation of this equipment without a certificate of conformity will be held liable under Art. 13.6 of the Administrative Code. The article provides for the maximum punishment for legal entities in the amount of up to 300 thousand rubles.

As the top manager of one of the telecom operators and the head of the communications company emphasized, Google servers should not be subject to certification, since they are not means of communication.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications has developed a project for the interaction of security officials with Roskomnadzor in cases of bypassing blocking by anonymizers

On August 24, 2017, information appeared that the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia developed a draft decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, which approves the procedure for interaction of law enforcement agencies with Roskomnadzor in the event of detection of means of bypassing blocking on the Internet.^[78]. The document is published on regulation.gov.ru.

In particular, law enforcement agencies are invited to notify Roskomnadzor about means of bypassing locks through the personal account of authorized employees on the agency's website. According to the draft resolution, notifications must be signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature of the head of the state body or his deputy and accompanied by a screenshot confirming the possibility of using the identified hardware and software to bypass restrictions on information resources, access to which is limited. Notifications should also provide information about the owner of the anonymizer and the anonymizer itself, including its network address on the Internet.

As you know, Russia Vladimir Putin the President signed a law banning programs to bypass locks to access prohibited sites, which will enter into force on November 1, 2017. The law prohibits, under threat of blocking, anonymizers and VPN services from providing access to Internet resources blacklisted by Roskomnadzor.

Bill to ban foreigners from owning traffic exchange points

Continuing the strategy of restricting foreign ownership in the areas of the telecommunications and media market, the government prepared in August 2017 the next amendments to the law "On Communications." This time we are talking about owning traffic exchange points. By analogy with previously adopted restrictions, it is now also proposed to reduce the permissible rate of foreign ownership of these objects to 20%. At the same time, "a foreign state, an international organization, a foreign legal entity or a Russian company with more than 20% foreign participation" can own these 20% directly or indirectly, Vedomosti reports.

The publication notes that the very concept of "traffic exchange point" in the bill, authored by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, is very vague. The document gives the following definition: "this is a technological system that provides networks connected to it with traffic transmission between them on the Internet."

According to experts, such a definition may include not only a traffic exchange point as such, but also other objects that perform similar tasks. " For example, networks of telecom operators. The new document causes concern among mobile telecom operators, whose networks, in fact, are a "collection" of the networks they bought. And the points of their connection for transferring information from one network to another may well fall under the definition of a traffic exchange point, although the river does not refer to transit services or traffic exchange with third-party companies. If the bill passes through all instances, it will enter into force 180 days after its publication.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications prepared in June 2017 a new version of the bill "On Critical Internet Infrastructure," reports Rambler News Services (RNS). In the latest edition, the document provides for a ban on foreign investors from owning more than 20% of shares in traffic exchange points (Internet Exchange, IX)^[79] from^[80].

What applies to critical infrastructure

The bill classifies traffic exchange points, a domain zone and cross-border trunk channels as critical infrastructure. The bill also introduces the concept of an "autonomous system" - a set of means of communication that have a single routing policy on the Internet and a unique identification number.

All these objects will be registered with the state in a specially created state information system (GIS). Later, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications finalized the document, proposing to oblige telecom operators to exchange traffic only through exchange points entered into GIS. According to RNS, the current version of the bill also obliges owners of autonomous systems to provide GIS with information about their IP addresses, domain names, locations of network nodes, etc.

List of user Internet data for transfer to security officials

The list of user data that, at the request of law enforcement officers, should be transmitted to the special services of social networks and instant messengers included in the register of Roskomnadzor is published on the portal regulation.gov.ru. The draft amendments to a number of laws were prepared by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.

According to the submitted document, the following data is proposed to be transmitted to the special services: the name and pseudonym of the user, his date of birth, passport data, address, including IP, phone number and list of relatives. As mandatory for transferring information, such as user ID, date and time of registration, date and time of authorization and exit from the service, as well as information about the location and accounts in other networks are defined. Among the proposals, it was also recorded that the security forces were provided with access to forwarded messages and files, recordings of audio and video calls and data on electronic payments.

Among the distributors of information in the register of Roskomnadzor are now such social networks as Vkontakte"," Schoolmates"," My world"," "," "My circle as well as," " messengers Telegram and Агент@Mail.ru IMO.

Procession against censorship on the Internet

On July 23, a procession "For Free Internet" took place in Moscow - participants demanded the resignation of the head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov and chanted slogans against restrictions on the Internet. According to the organizers, among whom was the Parnas party, about two thousand people took part in the march, the police reported eight hundred participants^[81].

Russia demands YouTube remove videos (graphic)

Google reported on requests from states demanding the removal of YouTube videos. As it turned out, Russia is increasingly demanding that the service delete videos - and many times more often^[82].

The State Duma demanded to finalize the bill on combating illegal information in social networks

On July 18, it became known that the State Duma Council demanded to finalize by the second reading the bill on amendments to the federal law of 27.07.2006 No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," proposed by the deputies of the United Russia faction on July 12, and take into account the feedback, proposals and comments of industry representatives and various experts. The second reading is scheduled for July 19 (you can read more about the bill in the article Popular social networks and instant messengers may oblige to create a branch in Russia).^[83]

Meanwhile, on July 13, the State Duma Council approved the concept of this bill. The State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications was appointed as the responsible committee on the bill, and the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, as well as the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, were appointed as co-executive committees.

At the autumn session, which lasts from September 1 to December 25, the deputies postponed consideration of a related bill - amendments to the Administrative Code, providing for administrative liability for non-executors of the future law in the form of serious fines: from 3 to 5 million - for individuals and from 30 to 50 million - for legal entities.

Russia may introduce multimillion-dollar fines for lying on social networks

On July 12, 2017, a bill will be submitted to the State Duma, which provides for a fine for refusing to remove false information or illegal content from social networks. Prepared by "United Russia." Individuals will be fined in the amount of 3 to 5 million rubles, legal entities - from 30 to 50 million rubles. Interfax reported this with reference to the first deputy head of the United Russia faction, Andrei Isaev. ^[84]. If approved by the State Duma, the law will enter into force^[85] beginning^[86] 2018.

According to Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Igor Lebedev, interviewed by Interfax, the Liberal Democratic Party will support this initiative. Lebedev believes that inaccurate information in social networks is often replicated for political reasons. The new law should end it and make political competition more honest.

As noted, the authors of the bill were guided by a similar government initiative in Germany (see the article Censorship (control and anonymity) on the Internet. World experience).

Sergei Boyarsky, co-author of the bill, noted on Twitter that "fines for refusing to delete illegal information will not apply to users. Only the organizers of the dissemination of information. " It turns out that individuals who can be fined from 3 to 5 million rubles. - these are representatives of the social network, not users. Fines will be included in the Code of Administrative Offenses.

Andrei Alshevskikh, another of the authors of the project, said that the removal of unreliable and illegal publications of the social network will be taken care of on their own. To do this, they will have to create round-the-clock services where users can complain at any time. The dubious publication must be deleted within 24 hours, otherwise the social network will face a fine.

Closure of the site "Satellite and pogrom"

On the morning of July 6, Roskomnadzor, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, blocked[2] the Sputnik and Pogrom resource^[87] popular among nationalists. Together with him, a dozen more sites and blogs recognized as extremist were blocked. The creator of Sputnik and the Pogrom, Yegor Prosvirnin, said that the blocking was connected with the start of Vladimir Putin's election campaign and the need to "clean up the media for the coronation of 2018." And in the evening, Valentina Matvienko said^[88]Russia "will not follow the path of those states whose authorities are trying to prevent the activities of objectionable media."

Closing anonymizers

FTS will be able to block anonymizers

The Ministry of Justice of Russia registered in July 2017 a joint order of Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Tax Service and Rospotrebnadzor, which approves the criteria for assessing information for its inclusion in the banned list. According to Izvestia, one of the points of the document also implies the right of the Federal Tax Service to block Internet casinos and means of bypassing blocking - such as^[89] anonymizers^[90].

MPs banned anonymizers and search engines from giving access to banned sites

The State Duma approved at the end of June 2017 in the first reading a bill on regulating the activities of services designed to gain access to Internet sites bypassing official blocking, as well as on excluding links to blocked resources from issuing search engines. The authors of the bill were deputies Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party faction), Nikolai Ryzhak (Fair Russia) and Maxim Kudryavtsev (United Russia)^[91].

See VPN and privacy (anonymity, anonymizers) for more details

The head of the FSB asked the Duma to speed up the adoption of laws on regulation on the Web

Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov at a government hour in the State Duma on June 23, 2017 asked the deputies to speed up the adoption of several bills, including on critical information infrastructure, instant messengers and anonymizers. Two participants in the meeting, which was held behind closed doors, told RBC about this. The head of the ^[92].

The Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin asked the deputies not to use mobile phones and other means of communication, as well as not to disclose the details of the meeting, in addition, during Bortnikov's visit, he did not work in the lower house. Wi-Fi

Bortnikov discussed general security issues - existing information threats, countering hacker attacks, five deputies told RBC. Among other things, it was "about the need for more active work on the creation of Russian software, the deputies themselves drew Bortnikov's attention to this." One interlocutor in the Duma clarified that the topic of creating Russian messengers was also touched upon.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications received the authority to block sites

The State Duma approved in June 2017 in the second reading a bill to block the "mirrors" of pirated sites. The corresponding document is an amendment to the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" of the^[93].

The bill was originally developed by the Ministry of Communications. In early 2017, it was approved by the Government, after which the document was submitted to the State Duma. In March, the bill was approved by deputies in the first reading.

The main meaning of the bill is to introduce a procedure for blocking "mirrors" of sites that were previously recognized by the Moscow City Court as pirated and blocked forever, as well as oblige search engines to remove links to such resources.

In the second reading, the bill underwent significant changes. Initially, it was assumed that if the "mirror" of the pirated site was found, the copyright holder would contact the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. The agency will conduct an examination on whether the site is really a "mirror" of the forever blocked resource.

Further, according to the first version of the bill, the copyright holder would have to contact the Moscow City Court. The court would issue a court order in a simplified mode to block this resource, after which Roskomnadzor would block access to it from the territory of Russia, and would also require search engines to remove links to this resource within three days. For the same purpose, it was planned to add to the Civil Code a definition of a court order issued on the basis of a decision of the Moscow City Court.

Now the procedure will be simplified: the decision of the Moscow City Court to recognize sites as a "mirror" of a resource previously recognized as pirated will be enough for Roskomnadzor to block access to it from Russia and exclude links to this site from search results.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications will have to make a decision on recognizing the site as a "mirror" within 24 hours. The period for search engines to remove links to pirated resources and their "mirrors" will be reduced from three to one day. Providers will also have to block access to "mirrors" of pirated resources for one day.

The conceptual apparatus has also changed in the bill. In the previous version, the bill for naming "mirrors" of sites used the concept of "derived site on the Internet" and gave a very voluminous definition of it. Now, instead, the concept of "a site similar to the degree of confusion with a site on the Internet, access to which is limited by a court decision," will be used.

The bill banning anonymizers (bypassing locks) was approved by the participants of the meeting in the State Duma

The State Duma in June 2017 received a bill amending the Code of Administrative Offenses in relation to blocking prohibited resources. The authors of the document are deputies Maxim Kudryavtsev, Nikolai Ryzhak and Alexander Yushchenko^[94].

According to the bill introduced today, Roskomnadzor should maintain a register of prohibited resources and identify networks, sites and programs that are able to open access to such sites.

Having identified such a service, the control body sends it to the provider a notification demanding to disclose persons using bypass methods within three days. After that, the provider, also within three days, is obliged to warn these persons about the need to stop such activities, and within 30 days - to stop the possibility of bypassing access or give Roskomnadzor access to its system for this.

In addition, in connection with the initiative to abolish the ineffective provisions governing the dissemination of publicly available information by bloggers on the network "Internet," it is proposed to amend the provisions of Article 19.710 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, excluding from the relevant administrative offense the actions of failure to submit or untimely submission to Roskomnadzor by a hosting provider or other person who ensures the placement of a site or website page on the Internet, data that allows you to identify the blogger.

The first discussion of the bill banning anonymizers, VPNs and similar services to bypass blocked sites took place in the State Duma. Following the meeting, it was decided to create a working group to finalize the document, RBC reported on June 20, 2017.

In general, the bill was supported by almost all participants in the meeting, including representatives of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, they noted that the implementation of the law may require significant investments. The head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, assured that the service has resources for these purposes, however, due to the huge number of anonymizers, the implementation of the law may drag on for months.

At the same time, costs for telecom operators may be significant. In addition to the fact that the bill is a threat to the development of the VPN business, the implementation may require the introduction of new technological solutions and an increase in equipment costs.

Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in May 2017 approving the "Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030." The strategy boils down to the desire of the authorities to use Russian technologies as much as possible and expand state control on the Internet.

Within six months, the government will have to deal with supporting traditional media and resolving the situation with similar services. In this case, we are talking about news aggregators, social networks, Internet television, instant messengers, as well as "sites on the Internet." According to the decree, such measures are necessary for "the formation in Russia of an information space that takes into account the needs of citizens and society in obtaining high-quality and reliable information."

In addition, the text of the document proposes to take measures that exclude the anonymity of network users and their "irresponsibility and impunity." It is also planned to create a special system that guarantees "the personal safety of users, the confidentiality of their information."

• Only those programs and services that receive the FSB certificate should be considered safe. We must be careful about programs and services that are managed from abroad, depend on forced updates and collect information about users. And it is better to replace everything with Russian analogues. This is especially true for data encryption programs and algorithms. Phones are also better to make Russian.
• The Russian segment of the Internet should be resistant to all kinds of attacks. To do this, the authorities must monitor the infrastructure and monitor its security.
• It is necessary to ensure that "reliable and high-quality information of Russian production" is disseminated in the Russian information space.

The national segment of the Internet will be protected from shutdown by other states. For this, in 2018, the legislation will record the status of the Runet and describe the scheme of its work. Technically, it is planned to eliminate the possibility of disconnecting Russia from the Internet by 2021. This is stated in the draft program "Digital Economy." This document, prepared by an interdepartmental working group under the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, was sent to the government in the spring of 2017.

A number of organizational measures are planned to protect the Russian segment of the Internet. In 2018, the legal status of the Russian segment of the Internet, its infrastructure (register of addresses, route-address information, root servers), as well as the procedure for financing and functioning of the Runet will be legislatively enshrined.

CC: The Internet is changing, the attitude of the state towards it is also changing

The director CC Andrei Vorobyov in April 2017 commented on two trends in governance attitudes states. Internet In some countries, there is an increase in government regulation, Internet such as Switzerland or Australia. At the same time, in other countries, on the contrary, they are trying to introduce mechanisms for self-regulation of the industry. All these processes are developing pendulum, and many experts agree that for most cases some hybrid model is suitable: industry regulators have a high share of independence, but at the same time they work in conjunction with the state in order to ensure compliance with the interests of all interested parties.

"The Internet we created years ago has changed a lot today. The attitude of the state towards it has also changed, including the attitude to the regulation of the national domain. Today, the state takes a much more active part in the work of the Coordination Center and the management of national domains of.RU and the RF - and this trend is observed in many countries. But already today we see many aspects that require new approaches to management and regulation - and the question arises: who will do this tomorrow? We all experience a personnel shortage - there are simply not enough specialists in the Internet industry. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of today, I consider the involvement of young people in the processes of Internet governance - this is the only way we can prepare personnel for the future network, "said Andrei Vorobyov

.

Concept of a new UN convention from the Ministry of Communications

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media developed in early 2017 the concept of a new convention UN, which deals with governance, Internet as well as its safety and development. The ministry announced this on its website. The agency notes that the concept should contribute to development, Internet increase its security and guarantee network users their rights and freedoms. In addition, the document stipulates equal international cooperation in Internet governance and proposes a number of principles on which this governance should be based by the^[95] and Mass^[96]

The end of the "magnificent quasi-freedom" on the Internet

The Internet cannot be a place of "magnificent quasi-freedom," where any information spreads uncontrollably, the president is sure. In both Russia Vladimir Putin USA countries, Europe according to him, very strict regulation has already been introduced, it is taking its measures, and the China Russian authorities cannot stand aside. In particular, Putin believes that they should limit the dissemination of information on a number of topics on the Internet (propaganda of suicide and terrorism, child pornography, drug distribution, etc.), but this must be done "carefully, civilized and technologically" RBC: Putin^[97]

"The general

approach, in my opinion, should be this: everything that is prohibited in the law cannot be done. And everything that is not prohibited is possible, "Putin said, speaking in April 2017 at the media forum of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF).

Putin noted that the authorities should "stop the threats" associated with excessive freedom on the Internet, pointing out the danger of "automatic stuffing." But at the same time he admitted that the current restrictions are "enough" and the existing system of restrictions "functions normally."

The President recalled that many demand tougher restrictions on the dissemination of information on the Internet. However, in solving this, the government, according to Putin, should proceed not from confidence that it "knows everything best" but from the state of society.

Access to violating sites will slow down

In Russia, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), Roskomnadzor and other departments are working on a new bill. The document will allow, by a court decision, to slow down access to sites that violate Russian law. Relevant amendments can be submitted in the spring.

Amendments to the legislation to slow down access to sites that violate Russian laws are being prepared by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), Roskomnadzor and other departments. It is planned that the norm will apply not only to foreign resources, but also to domestic ones. According to the publication vedomosti.ru, the bill is being approved and may be adopted in the spring.

The idea of ​ ​ the new bill arose during the repeated interactions of Russian regulators and world Internet companies. As one of the officials said, the new bill will serve as a kind of "civilized coercion to dialogue" of a number of foreign companies that do business in Russia, but at the same time refer to foreign legislation. So, recently negotiations between Roskomnadzor and representatives of LinkedIn ended in nothing - the social network of professional relations stopped providing services in the Russian Federation, since transferring user data to Russia is not beneficial to the company. In a number of cases, Facebook and Twitter simply refused to remove illegal content based on decisions of Russian courts. At the end of 2015, Google was recognized by the FAS as a violator of the law on the protection of competition and fined 438 million rubles. according to the statement of Yandex.

Propaganda of suicide in the Internet space is part of a hybrid war

Propaganda of suicide in the Internet space is part of a hybrid war, experts say. The Russian State Duma has already begun to develop a bill aimed at combating "death groups" in social networks.

In Russia, from November 2015 to April 2016, 130 cases of death of children occurred, most of which were members of "death groups" in social networks. After each case of suicide of a teenager, many aggressive comments appeared on his page on social networks, which, as journalists found out, in 90% of cases were published by bots.

Experts note that information attacks, the purpose of which is to maintain interest in the topic of suicides in the web space, are well organized - "death groups" are well funded by customers, they have curators who have a psychological impact on adolescents, as well as paid trolls who support the topic "afloat." There are exchanges on the Internet for trading bots and fake accounts. So, the cost of posting suicidal poems or responding to comments to them is 1 thousand rubles, the "left" account can be purchased for 5 rubles. Buying a computer or smartphone, SIM cards, modems, services and equipment for marking traces will cost 100 thousand rubles. Live trolls estimate their services at 30 thousand rubles. Monthly^[98].

On March 2, the prosecutor's office of the Astrakhan region opened a criminal case, where 21-year-old Philip Budeikin, known under the pseudonym Philip Lis, appears. Budeikin is already in jail, he is accused of driving teenagers to suicide. He is the most famous hero of the story of the "death groups" "VKontakte." The game of "blue whales," which allegedly leads to suicides, began to be actively discussed again in recent weeks, when an increase in relevant search queries was recorded, not only in Russia, but also in neighboring countries. VKontakte blocks posts associated with blue whales; in opposition to "death groups," communities of volunteers appeared to fight the phenomenon; teenage suicides are discussed in the government^[99]

In all regions of the country, it is necessary to create a structure that will fight suicide propaganda on social networks; the actions of the structure need to be consolidated at the legislative level and ensure public control, said State Duma deputy from Sevastopol Dmitry Belik. According to Dmitry Belik, in addition to working with adolescents, it is necessary to actively oppose the work of "death groups." This could be done by the so-called. "Cybermen" - employees in the office of the Commissioners for Children's Rights in the regions, specializing in working on the Internet. Also, the "cyber" needs to constantly cooperate with the centers of social and psychological assistance to adolescents, as well as representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. "Cybernyanya" can work in several directions. The first is the work of identifying and technically blocking groups and accounts associated with suicide propaganda. At the moment, there is a clear algorithm for a teenager to get into the network of administrators of such groups. Knowing him, the "cybernyanya" can calculate these groups and apply for their blocking to the relevant authorities. Second, "cybernians can fall inside the system of" death groups "and inform law enforcement agencies about their work. In addition, being inside the system, the "cyber" can identify adolescents at risk and transmit information about them to parents and social services, as well as carry out primary work to remove adolescents from the influence of group administrators.

The bill on "death groups," initiated by deputy Irina Yarovaya, was submitted to the State Duma in March. According to the document presented by the Vice-Speaker of the State Duma, it is proposed to introduce into the Criminal Code (Criminal Code) the article "Inducement to commit suicide or assistance in committing suicide," according to which such actions (including propaganda of suicide in social networks) will be punished up to imprisonment. The punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to two years is proposed to be introduced for inducement to suicide, and for assistance in committing suicide - up to three years. If such actions were committed against children, pregnant women, or via the Internet, then the term of imprisonment will be increased to four years. In cases where suicide has occurred, faces a term of up to five years, after the suicide of a child or pregnant woman, according to the draft law, punishment is provided for up to seven years in prison. The Criminal Code proposes to introduce another new article, according to which punishment is provided for the involvement of children in "death groups." For this, it is proposed to introduce a punishment in the form of imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 80 thousand rubles

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The government bans "mirrors" of pirated sites in Russia

The Government Commission of the Russian Federation approved a bill that will limit access to the mirrors of sites containing illegally distributed content. In addition, the bill will oblige search engines operators to remove from search results those resources that were blocked for piracy on an ongoing basis, as well as "mirrors" of such resources. A message about this appeared on the website of the Russian government^[100].

The bill was prepared by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and published on the regulation.gov.ru portal in May 2016. The document provides for amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" and the Civil Code. For more information, see Pirate Software in Russia and the World (Unlicensed Software).

In the very first version, prepared by the Association for the Protection of Copyright on the Internet, one of the main fighters against pirated content, it was supposed to introduce administrative fines for promoting methods of bypassing blocking. In the version of the bill developed by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, the ban on the propaganda of blockages concerned only telecom operators. For this, a fine of 50 thousand rubles should be imposed. Up to 100 thousand rubles. for legal entities^[101] were^[102] to^[103]. However, the version of the bill, which was approved by the State Duma on March 17, 2017, does not contain such a clause. "Of course, few telecom operators decide on" stub "pages (informing users about blocking the resources they requested) to post information about methods of bypassing locks," says Artem Kozlyuk, project coordinator for Roskomsvoboda. "But the introduction of this norm, even in this form, could be the first step towards completely banning the dissemination of information in Russia about ways to bypass locks."

Provider fines for accessing banned sites

The State Duma adopted in February in the third reading a law on fines for telecom operators who do not comply with the requirements to block access to prohibited Internet sites. The corresponding article will be added to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO)^[104]. Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law introducing the responsibility of telecom operators for refusing to block sites with information prohibited in Russia. The law introduces a new article 13.34 in the Code of Administrative Offenses, providing for liability for non-compliance with Roskomnadzor decisions to block or resume access to sites.

Until now, providers whom Roskomnadzor convicted of non-compliance with the requirements for blocking resources from the Register of Prohibited Sites were punished under Part 3 of Article 14.1 of the Administrative Code - "Carrying out entrepreneurial activities in violation of the requirements and conditions provided for by a special permit (license)."

This article provides for fines for individuals in the amount of 1.5 thousand rubles. up to 2 thousand rubles, for officials - from 3 thousand rubles. up to 5 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 30 thousand rubles. up to 40 thousand rubles.

The explanatory note to the bill says that in 2015 Roskomnadzor drew up 501 protocols on administrative offenses for not blocking prohibited sites by providers. Arbitration courts on the complaints of Roskomnadzor adopted 488 decisions on the imposition of fines on providers under Article 14.1 of the Administrative Code.

However, as the authors of the bill indicate, the measures established by this article of the Administrative Code are insignificant, they are disproportionate to the social danger of blocked information and do not prevent operators from committing offenses.

At the same time, an increase in the amount of fines established by Article 3 of Article 14.1 of the Administrative Code is inappropriate, since this article also applies for less dangerous offenses. For example, this article includes a violation for one day of the deadline for sending information to Rossvyaz about the basis for calculating mandatory deductions.

In this regard, it was proposed to introduce a separate article in the Administrative Code for not blocking access to prohibited sites. Now the amount of the fine for individual entrepreneurs is from 10 thousand rubles. up to 30 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 50 thousand rubles. up to 100 thousand rubles. For officials, the fine will remain the same - from 3 thousand rubles. up to 5 thousand rubles.

95% of Russian telecom operators under the "Auditor"

Roskomnadzor reported in early 2017 that 3,684 telecom operators (95%) were under the control of the automated system Auditor"," which was implemented on December 1, 2016. As the regulator notes, during this time, the share of prohibited resources unblocked by telecom operators per operator decreased - from 0.49% to 0.07%. The percentage of unblocked resources included in the Unified Register for the promotion of extremism has also decreased - from 0.14% to 0.09%. In 2016, 478 cases of administrative offenses were initiated, for which 409 court decisions were made to satisfy the claims of Roskomnadzor.

G. Klimenko: "Of course, control is needed.."

German Klimenko, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation on the development of the Internet, expressed the opinion that information security in Russia requires the introduction of Internet restrictions, following the example of China.

The introduction of Internet restrictions in Russia, as in China, will ensure the country's information security. This point of view was expressed by the presidential adviser on Internet issues German Klimenko during a lecture "Information Security of Russia" for students of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces.

The official believes that the Chinese option is the right development path for this area. "Certainly, control is needed because there is no way to prevent it. China is less sensitive to the opinion of society, they assessed the threat and limited the Internet. Now they have no such problems, "Klimenko said. He also drew attention to the lack of mutual understanding and the desire for it on the part of foreign companies that work in the Russian market. Law enforcement agencies have not once noted their unwillingness to cooperate constructively. "On the territory of the country, foreign companies earn money, but do not answer a single question of law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, we cannot write to WhatsApp and ask to disable encryption, "Klimenko said. And he stressed that in such cases, "any self-respecting state" should take measures against foreign messengers and social networks, up to the closure of access to services, if they do not want to cooperate

.

Press Secretary of the Head of State Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the statements of the official, said that this is a private point of view of Klimenko, which is not the official position of the authorities. Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Alexey Volin is also of the opinion that in this case the phrase was taken out of context and freely interpreted. "We talked with German Sergeyevich, and he did not call at all to follow the Chinese path. Studying other models does not mean blindly following them, "he explained.

Uniform rules for restricting access to unwanted content

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications has prepared amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection," defining "uniform requirements for all telecom operators to methods of restricting access to information resources, as well as to information messages on restricting access to sites."

For the so-called "point lock," it is necessary to use properly configured modern equipment. Today, some major ISPs have already implemented this capability. "

2016

JANUARY 1 The "law on the right to oblivion" came into force. A person can ask the search engine to remove links to inaccurate information about him from the issue, if he can confirm this. The search engine has the right to refuse, but if he does not delete the links after the court decision, he will be fined a million rubles.

{{main 'Right to be forgotten
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The 21-year-old resident of Berdsk, Novosibirsk Region, was also unlucky. Maxim Kormelitsky received a year and three months in a penal colony for repost and a harsh statement to the Orthodox. In January 2016, Kormelitsky, through a transfer from the Dvach community on VKontakte, posted on his page a photo of Orthodox Christians swimming in the hole with a comment, where, according to him, he assessed "the mental state of people who sacrifice their health for religion."

The recording was seen by Orthodox activist Yuri Zadoya, who complained to the Investigative Committee about the offensive comment. Kormelitsky was found guilty under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which establishes responsibility for inciting hatred on religious grounds.

FEBRUARY 26 In the first reading^[105] approved^[106] law on the "tax^[107] Google." It imposes VAT programs and services on the Internet. The law will affect the prices of applications in the App Store and Google Play, the cost of any programs and subscriptions. In the second edition, they want to withdraw Russian developers from the law, since they will be in a less favorable position than foreign companies.

19 APRIL In the first reading^[108] adopted^[109] "law on news aggregators." It equates aggregators with an audience of more than 1 million people per day - Yandex.Novosti, Google News and others - to the media, obliges them to check the accuracy of information (this item was promised to be removed), limit the distribution of extremist materials and block them at the request of Roskomnadzor. Also, the aggregator cannot have a foreign capital share of more than 20%. If the law is adopted in its current form, the Yandex.News service will stop^[110]. The Ministry of Communications compared the^[111] the law with the requirement^[112] owners of kiosks "check the contents of the newspapers sold." It should eventually be adopted this year, but in a modified form, since the current edition will destroy both Yandex.News and Google News. If the law is softened and the obligation to check the accuracy of information is removed from search engines, questions will remain about 20% of foreign capital: Yandex shares are traded on the stock exchange, and Google is a foreign company.

On MAY 13, Roskomnadzor is going^[113] to^[114] the right to deprive domains in zones.ru and.rf of registration without trial. The agency is going to apply new opportunities against sites promoting drugs and extremism.

MAY 19 It became known about the project^[115] amendments that impose fines for information about bypassing blocking on "plugs" of prohibited sites (for example, mentioning Tor). Providers will pay 50-100 thousand rubles for this. Amendments are also being prepared to close the "mirrors" of blocked sites.

On MAY 26, ^[116] Ministry of Economic Development proposed^[117] officials^[118] to prohibit military personnel and officials from texting for work through Gmail, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and Telegram.

In Yekaterinburg, a local court found a single mother guilty of inciting interethnic hatred and enmity. Ekaterina Vologzheninova was convicted under Article 282 of the Criminal Code for reposting on VKontakte several records of the Ukrainian People's Self-Defense and Right Sector communities (the organization is banned in Russia. - Approx. ed.). For reposts, the woman received 20 hours of compulsory work. In addition, a laptop, a computer mouse and a charger were seized and destroyed from Vologzheninova.

JUNE 23 The President of Russia signed a law on the specifics of the dissemination of information by Internet news aggregators, the attendance of which exceeds a million users per day (it will enter into force on January 1, 2017). According to the law, the owners of news aggregators are obliged to check the accuracy of socially significant information before its distribution and delete it by order of Roskomnadzor. At the same time, they will not be responsible for the dissemination of inaccurate information if it is a literal citation of the media. And the owner of the news aggregator can only be a Russian legal entity or a citizen of Russia. News aggregators will have to store for six months the information they disseminate, information about the source of its receipt, as well as about the timing of its distribution. In addition, news aggregators are obliged to provide access to this information to Roskomnadzor, which will maintain a register of news aggregators.

IN JULY, Roskomnadzor blocked five Internet resources that posted information on tax evasion methods^[119] were^[120] from^[121]. According to CNews, the supervisory authority has blocked four sites with advice on avoiding transport tax: a resource with advertisements for the sale of cheap-auto.ru cars, the Petrozavodsk sports club Hooiz.com, as well as avtolia.ru and ответ-на-вопрос.рф. sites The decision to block part of these resources was made by the Krasnoyarsk District Court of the Samara Region at the suit of the local prosecutor, the newspaper writes. In its decision, the court agreed with the plaintiff's arguments that the Tax Code obliges all Russian citizens to pay taxes and establishes the principle of equality in their payment, in connection with which the work of such sites contradicts Russian law.

Also in JULY, the Prosecutor's Office of the city of Smolensk, on the fact of checking local providers, revealed among some of them violations regarding compliance with the requirements of the legislation on countering extremist activities^[122] of the^[123]. During the audit, it was found that Internet sites that were found to be extremist in court are still in the public domain on the Web by a number of operators. On the facts of the identified violations, "3 submissions were made to the addresses of the providers, which were considered and satisfied, measures were taken to eliminate the violations." In addition, 6 guilty persons were brought to disciplinary responsibility, and an administrative offense case was initiated against the page user.

Google Transparency Report

In the annual Google Transparency Report for 2016, the number of requests to the search giant from Russian government agencies, law enforcement agencies and the police for the removal of illegal content increased to 13.2 thousand.

85% of Russian requests were sent to ensure national security, 5% of requests were criticized by government officials, 2% were related to suicide propaganda and other violations of the law. Google satisfied 74% of Russian applications - the resources mentioned in them were blocked or removed from search results.

The second half of 2016 was the most active. During this period, Google received more than 11 thousand requests from Russian officials: 43.4% of requests belonged to YouTube videos, 43.2% to web search.

Russia was also on the list of leaders in terms of the number of requests to remove content from Twitter. Following complaints from Russia, Twitter deleted or restricted access to 65 accounts domestically and hid 271 tweets. Only Turkey turned out to be more active, sending 5.5 thousand requests^[124].

Facebook and Microsoft also reported that, according to their calculations, the number of requests from Russian officials in 2016 increased several times, although Russia is not the leader in the number of requests. Microsoft received 211 requests to remove a variety of content, while in 2015 it received only 3.

Amnesty International

Summing up the results of 2016, the human rights organization Amnesty International, in the report stressed that the adoption of the "Spring package" in Russia limited freedom of expression.

The document states: "The restrictions imposed on freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly have been tightened." As an example, attention is drawn to the fact that dozens of independent human rights, environmental, women's and socially oriented non-profit organizations, including the international society Memorial, were included in the register of foreign agents for 2016.

Assessments of human rights defenders

Since 2016, on Runet, human rights activists have stated a number of accepted innovations aimed at restricting freedoms on the Web. In their opinion, the growth of restrictions in Runet is becoming more and more general. So, among the 22 categories of prohibited resources, the list of which is controlled by Roskomnadzor, there are online stores that sell cheese and jamon. Increasingly, users for activity on the Web are prosecuted - the number of known sentences to imprisonment increased from 18 to 29, compulsory medical measures were applied to three users for right-wing radical statements.

Under the article on the propaganda of separatism, which was included in the Criminal Code in 2014, 15 cases were opened, 8 of them only dealt with the status of Crimea, the rest involved such regions as Karelia, Siberia and the Urals, united Mongolia, Chechnya, Komi Republic, Kuban, Kaliningrad region. In 2014, a couple of dozen sentences were passed on "extremist" cases, in 2015 - 300, in 2016, human rights activists believe, there will be even more.

As noted by the Internet Ombudsman Marinichev Dmitry, "the problem is rather not in state policy, but in the excessive reactivity of local performers: this is not malicious intent, but excesses." He supports the idea of ​ ​ creating a single judicial body, which was vested with the right to consider cases and make decisions on extremism (now any district court can do this). According to Marinichev, it is also necessary "to give a clear definition for the concept of" extremism ": there should be criteria that will distinguish it from simple expression of opinion."

Human rights defenders are also alarmed by the desire of the country's authorities to isolate the Russian segment of the Web - Runet, restrict international traffic and sharply reduce communication channels with the Global Network, trying to create an alternative - a national network. So, in June, the amendments of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications to the state program "Information Society" were issued, according to which 99% of Internet traffic by 2020 will have to be transmitted within the country^[125]

Central Bank will help block sites with malicious content

Internet sites with malicious content related to the financial markets and the national payment system will be blocked based on data received from the Central Bank. This was reported by TASS Information Agency of Russia. Such actions are provided for in the agreement between the Bank of Russia and the Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain - the administrator of the national top-level domains. "rf" and ".ru."

See more - Information security in banks

Russian authorities began a massive blocking of anonymizers

Since the beginning of November 2016, Roskomnadzor has blocked access to 27 anonymizing sites. Such calculations were made by CNews based on a file cabinet reestr.rublacklist.net^[126].

Anonymizer is a site that allows you to go to another resource. Typically, anonymizers are used to log on to resources that are blocked from the user's network, or to anonymously access any sites (without tracking the user's real IP address).

In Russia, anonymizers became relevant after at the end of 2012, Roskomnadzor created a list of banned sites, access to which should be blocked by all providers. Anonymizers began to be promoted as a means of bypassing locks, while legislation does not prohibit the use of such resources.

Until recently, anonymizers were blocked, although they took place, but were isolated cases, and mainly referred to the "excesses of the executor": the authorized department blocked a certain resource that violated the law, and with it blocked the address of the page formed when entering a certain anonymizer on this site.

Russia, together with China, will create an Internet control system

As part of cooperation on cybersecurity, Russia, together with China, began developing the Red Web Internet control system. The joint development of the Red Web filtering and Internet control system is carried out by Russia and China on the basis of government agreements on cooperation in cybersecurity issues.

Earlier, the heads of government of Russia and China signed a joint communique on cyberspace. It is planned that the development will contribute to the regulation of the Network, as well as resolve the issue of processing large amounts of data that will need to be created as part of the implementation of the "Spring Law" in Russia.

System for monitoring interethnic relations and identifying conflict zones

The system for monitoring interethnic relations and identifying conflict zones was launched by the Federal Agency for Nationalities (FADN) of Russia. The system will allow you to analyze the situation and determine bursts of aggression in social networks. Now the agency is developing recommendations and mechanisms for responding to possible conflict situations.

The Russian Federal Agency for Nationalities (FADN) has developed and launched a system for monitoring interethnic relations and identifying zones of "increased tension," which will allow investigating conflict situations in terms of interethnic hatred and in social networks. The agency is working on guidelines and mechanisms to respond to potentially tense moments. Monitoring of all constituent entities of the Russian Federation, conducted by FADN, showed that at the moment only 5% of the population are hostile or mention the violation of rights on a national basis.

The draft state program for the implementation of the national policy of Russia, which the agency will submit for approval by the State Duma and the government on December 5, includes 8 subroutines. The costs of the new state program are estimated at 40 billion rubles.

See more about the FADN system here.

See also:
The Zorge service, developed by i-Sys, is a system for identifying and analyzing information threats in social networks and offers an operational analysis of the reaction of an Internet audience on various social, economic and socio-political issues. The main task of the system is to find people who incite a certain topic. As well as analyzing and predicting the mood of the public on a particular topic.

Levada Center: 60% of Russians for censorship on the Internet, 25% - against

More than half of Russian citizens speak out in favor of introducing restrictions on the Internet. A third of Russians believe that bans on the Web will only infringe on civil rights and freedoms.

60% of Russians spoke in favor of restricting access to certain online resources, and only a quarter of citizens oppose censorship on the Web. 14% adhere to a neutral position. Such data are provided by the Levada Center, having conducted a survey among 1.6 thousand people (from 18 years and older) from 48 regions of Russia.

44% of respondents believe that censorship will in no way affect the activities of public activists on the Web and the manifestation of civil liberties. Almost a third of Russians think that the introduction of restrictions will still affect the freedom of expression of thoughts online. 24% refrained from commenting.

If the majority of Russians trust the news of traditional media - 90% (and do not trust - 7%), then in relation to online information, the level of trust is lower - 73% versus 10%.

Every second respondent doubts that in the future the Internet will replace television, radio and newspapers. But one in three are sure otherwise.

Freedom House: Russia has worsened its position in the ranking of Internet freedom

Freedom House has presented another annual freedom rating Internet , Freedom on the Net 2016.

Russia has worsened its position in the ranking compared to the previous year. In 2016, the Russian Federation received 65 points on a scale where 0 points means maximum Internet freedom, and 100 points means maximum non-freedom. A year earlier, Russia had 62 points. Freedom House classifies the Russian Federation as a country with "non-free Internet."

The compilers of the rating, listing examples of restricting Internet freedom in the Russian Federation, among other things, note the package of "anti-terrorist amendments," the so-called "Spring package," numerous criminal cases against users of social networks, as well as cyber attacks on bloggers.

Russia, the report says, is one of 38 countries in the world where users have been prosecuted for publishing on the Internet over the past year. In general, the compilers of the rating calculated that 27 percent of all Internet users live in countries where they face criminal prosecution for activity in social networks.

Countries with maximum Internet freedom, the compilers of the rating recognized Estonia and Iceland, which received 6 points each. The lowest place in the ranking was taken with China 88 points. He is followed Syria Iran with 87 points.

The Internet Freedom Rating was compiled by Freedom House based on data obtained between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016. The rating participants are assessed according to three main criteria: obstacles to access the Network, restrictions on access to content and violation of user rights^[127].

Presented a draft law on the protection of the Russian Internet

In November 2016, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications presented a draft law proposing amendments to the Federal Law "On Communications." The agency proposes to add another to the list of goals of the Federal Law "On Communications" - "ensuring the integrity, continuity, stability, stability and security of the functioning of the Russian national segment of the Internet" and a number of related new concepts and norms.

Among the proposed new concepts is the definition of an autonomous system. It is described in the document as a set of communication means and other technical means under a single technical and administrative management, which has a single routing policy on the Internet and is identified in it by a single number. The bill also proposes to consolidate in the Federal Law "On Communications" the concept of an IP address, the Russian national segment of the Internet, its infrastructure, the point of exchange of traffic and its owner, the register of names of national domain zones ".ru,". "Rf," their administrator, as well as data transmission lines.

Read more: Runet Regulation Act

"Cossack cyber rifles" will be created in Russia

In Russia, it is planned to create "Cossack cyber rifles" that will protect the Russian segment of the Internet from dangerous content^[128].

The creation of such structures is supposed to be a cooperation agreement concluded between the Safe Internet League. ^[129] League in ^[130] and Moscow State University of Technology and Management named after Razumovsky (First Cossack University).

Israel to hack iPhone for Russia's Investigative Committee

In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR), Alexander Bastrykin, mentions technical means that help his department's specialists solve crimes. Among them is the UFED Universal Forensic Extraction Device solution, which, according to the head of the TFR, in particular, helped to investigate the disappearance of a resident of the Perm Territory^[131].

Operators will be punished for not blocking banned sites

The State Duma adopted in the first reading Bill^[132]which involves the establishment of administrative responsibility for telecom operators who do not block resources with illegal content^[133].

The document introduces the corresponding article into the administrative code. According to her, for failure to comply with the requirements for restricting or resuming access to information, officials will have to pay a fine of three to five thousand rubles, entrepreneurs - 10-30 thousand, legal entities - 50-100 thousand rubles.

The authors of the bill remind that every day at 9 o'clock in the morning and evening the register of domain names and pages of sites, access to which should be limited, is updated. During the day, the telecom operator must block the resources indicated in the list. However, there is currently no rule establishing the liability of companies for failure to comply with this requirement.

A judicial practice has developed, according to which provisions from the administrative code apply to violating operators, providing for responsibility for conducting entrepreneurial activities in violation of the conditions provided for by the license. In 2015, 501 protocols were drawn up under such an article, the sanction involves punishment in the form of a warning or fine from 30 to 40 thousand rubles. The authors of the bill believe that these fines are too insignificant and do not prevent operators from bypassing the law, including committing violations again. In addition, the fines "are not proportionate to the degree of social danger of the blocked information."

The deputies considered the increase in fines in the existing article inappropriate, since its composition is applied "and in cases of detecting less dangerous offenses." In this regard, parliamentarians proposed to allocate a separate article for violation.

Note, according to RSpectr^[134], the Cyberdruzhina public youth movement, established by the Safe Internet League, in 2016 already cleared 11 thousand Internet pages from prohibited information. So, according to the complaints of activists, 3200 pages with child pornography were removed, 7000 - with drug propaganda, 350 - with suicide propaganda. The most active were "cyberdruzhiniki" from the Tyumen, Magadan, Saratov, Chelyabinsk and Omsk regions.

FSB offered to decrypt all Internet traffic of Russians

The FSB, together with the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, began discussing the analysis of Internet traffic in September 2016. The difference in the positions of the departments is that the special services offer to decrypt all traffic in real time^[135] of^[136].

The position of the departments agrees that the storage of encrypted Internet traffic provided for by the "Spring Law" does not make sense, since it will be difficult to find anything there, writes. And Kommersant if the FSB is in favor of decrypting and analyzing all Internet traffic of Russians by key parameters, the ministries insist that this only applies to those subscribers who attract^[137] attention of law enforcement agencies^[138]

As the newspaper notes, according to the "Spring Law," owners of Internet sites are required to hand over encryption keys at the request of the FSB. However, as one of the newspaper's interlocutors said, there are a huge number of sites on the Internet that are not organizers of the dissemination of information and use a secure https connection. You can understand what a person did on the Web only after decrypting the traffic.

One of the options for solving the problem is to install equipment on the networks of operators capable of performing a MITM attack. The user will establish an SSL connection with this equipment, and already it - with the server to which the user contacted.

---

60-70% of popular sites on the Internet use encryption - this means that even if you intercept traffic from user to site, you will not be able to read it. The encryption key is in the certificate, they are issued by special companies called certification centers (CA). Browsers, when accessing resources, ask the certification center whether it really issued exactly the certificate that the site offers. If not, the browser swears and reports that the fake FSB certificate^[139].

The essence of the MiTM (Man-in-the-Middle) attack is that equipment is installed in the middle on the communication channel, which will be presented to the site by the "user" and to the user by the "site." And so that browsers do not swear and work with sites, the FSB decided to make its own CA.

Two options are possible. In the first, the CA issues a certificate to all sites. It is clear that it will be supplied by, say, some 20 obedient resources, and no one will seriously use such a certificate. Companies whose business is strongly tied to Russian legislation will probably install - some VKontakte or Odnoklassniki. But it is difficult to imagine that Facebook or Twitter put themselves a certificate that was issued to them by the UC of the FSB of the Russian Federation.

The second option: this CA itself issues a certificate to users, and they will all have to install it in browsers on their computers.

Until now, they have tried to do this in two countries - Iran and Kazakhstan. I will not say for sure what ended in Iran, and in Kazakhstan, Kahaztelecom, one of the major operators, released a message: all users need to install a certificate that the provider will give them - but then this news was removed very quickly, explaining by a technical error. It is very difficult to oblige all users to take a certificate. You can only introduce responsibility for the fact that a person does not use it.

But the main problem is that not all browsers allow you to install a certificate. And since the MiTM attack is very popular, almost all browsers will soon not allow working with sites with a fake certificate. For example, in the last Safari operating system iOS in 10, there is no longer a "continue" button on the warning page browser , it no longer swears, but simply does not allow you to work with such a resource.

Vyacheslav Volodin said that our Internet is freer than in the United States

First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vyacheslav Volodin said in September 2016 that he saw no need to tighten Internet regulation in Russia, Kommersant writes ^[140] of the ^[141]. And he clarified that the Russian Internet is "more free than in the United States." A high-ranking official spoke about this at a meeting with representatives of the Tambov media.

One of the participants in the meeting asked if it was worth introducing registration in social networks using a passport, "so that it would be clear who is on the other end of the Internet." To which Vyacheslav Volodin noted that Russia, unlike "a number of countries," took the "path of self-regulation of the Internet." And he announced that in Russia "there is more freedom on the Internet" than in other countries. "Take law enforcement practice. Have you heard about the lawsuits by officials, senior officials against users for the toughest criticisms in social networks? "- asked the first deputy head of the presidential administration. "And if you raise statistics even over the past six months, you will see that in the United States several people received a year, one and a half prisons for making statements about President Obama. So think about where there is more democracy, with us or with them, "Vyacheslav Volodin told the audience.

Ministry of Culture intends to ban advertising on pirated sites

According to Kommersant, the Ministry of Culture is preparing a bill banning advertising on illegal Internet resources. Advertising revenues are the main source of the existence of pirated sites. At the same time, modern technical capabilities allow you to advertise on such sites and support their activities bypassing blocking. The ministry believes that the deprivation of the opportunity to receive income will contribute to the complete cessation of the activities of the above resources^[142].

Sverdlovsk FSB will spend 1.6 million rubles. on software for extracting data from mobile devices

According to data published on the public procurement website, the FSB Directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region is interested in acquiring software for obtaining information from mobile devices running iOS, Android, Bada, BlackBerry, Brew, Java, Windows Mobile, etc. The tool will cost law enforcement officers 1,571,976,67 rubles.

The software purchased by the Sverdlovsk FSB should be able to extract information from 17 thousand models of mobile devices that regularly receive updates, including portable navigators, external drives and smart cards. With its help, the special service will be able to access contact lists, messages, call logs, data from SIM cards, media files, hidden and remote information, as well as find and decrypt messages from instant messengers.

In addition, the program should provide the ability to receive data from email and social networks Twitter, Facebook and VKontakte. Also, using the software, FSB officers will be able to determine the location of devices and track the route of its movements on GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth. Another software requirement: it must provide access to blocked Android and iOS devices.

The date of the competition for the purchase of software is scheduled for August 26 of this year. According to the Znak edition with reference to the press service of the FSB in the Sverdlovsk region, the tool will be used exclusively locally and only by a court decision.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications proposed to ban foreigners from owning traffic exchange points

The draft law on control over Runet, developed by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, among other things, provides for a ban on foreigners from owning traffic exchange points. Vedomosti writes about this, which managed to get acquainted with the draft amendments to the law "On Communications," developed by the ministry^[143].

The legitimate owners of traffic exchange points, according to the publication, the Ministry of Communications proposes to consider exclusively Russian legal entities. The regulator, the source of the publication said, admits that in the future foreigners may also become co-owners of traffic exchange points, but so that they own no more than 20 percent. Now such a restriction applies to the founders of the media. Also, according to the interlocutor of the newspaper, it is planned to license these points.

Administrator of the national top-level domain zone - domains ending in.RU and. RF - according to the project, there can be only a Russian legal entity established by the federal executive body in the field of communications, that is, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications itself.

Read more: National Internet Domain Coordination Center (CC)

Telecom operators proposed to introduce mandatory identification in instant messengers

The Media and Communications Union (ISS), which includes the largest Russian telecom operators, has prepared a draft amendment introducing mandatory identification of users of instant messengers and mail services.

The amendments, Vedomosti writes. ^[144]disposal^[145] which the draft document appeared, provide that any "organizer of the dissemination of information on the Internet, providing the possibility of exchanging electronic messages," is obliged^[146] identify users based on the information contained in the databases of telecom operators, having previously concluded agreements with them.

In addition, the authors of the bill propose to oblige telecom operators to "immediately block" messages or publications containing information disseminated in violation of the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation. Otherwise, operators have the right to restrict access to the service by decision of Roskomnadzor.

The

Yandex"" said that the amendments proposed by the ISS will actually abolish the right to anonymity on the Internet, and also limit the interaction of services with users, which could lead to the withdrawal of a number of Internet companies from the market. In VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) turn, they called the amendments redundant, taking into account the laws already adopted (the "Spring package^[147]

The media learned about the state's plans to take control of Internet traffic in the Russian Federation

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications developed in early 2016 a bill on control over Internet traffic in Russia in order to protect the network from external threats, Vedomosti reports. The document was developed ^[148] pursuance of the order of President Vladimir Putin^[149].

The draft amendments to the laws "On Communications" and "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" developed by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications will allow state bodies to control the passage of Internet traffic in Russia, Vedomosti writes. ^[150]. The publication got acquainted with a copy of the document, and the fact of its existence to the newspaper was confirmed by an official of the "relevant department," while the representative of the ministry declined to comment.

As follows from the text of the document, the state will monitor the routes of Internet traffic through communication networks. The ministry proposes to create a state monitoring system for "the use of global addressing resources and global Internet network identifiers (DNS and IP addresses)." If the law is adopted, a register of Runet addresses will be created.

As an unnamed federal official explained to the newspaper, this is necessary so that state authorities can understand how the Russian segment of the network works, because now this understanding does not exist. According to him, due to the chaotic development, Runet is very difficult to arrange, and this prevents the authorities from protecting his external threats.

The interlocutor of the publication also explained that the traffic monitoring system will make it possible to identify network points with weak connectivity, while it will not track the content of the transmitted information, since this can be done through operators. The authors of the bill also propose to make foreign communication channels and traffic exchange points more controlled and oblige operators to use only those traffic exchange points that are included in a special state register.

Federal Agency for Nationalities will have the right to block sites

On February 11, 2016, the Federal Portal of draft regulatory legal acts posted a draft federal law on amendments to the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection^[151]."

According to the text of the document, the existing law is planned to be supplemented with an article on the procedure for restricting access to information with calls for inciting ethnic conflicts.

So, if such appeals are found on the Internet, the head of the Federal Agency for Nationalities (FADN) or his deputies must send a decision to Roskomnadzor to temporarily block a resource containing illegal information.

In turn, Roskomnadzor must within 24 hours send a requirement to telecom operators and the corresponding hosting provider to restrict access to the detected prohibited information. At the same time, a notification of the discovery of illegal data should also be sent to the Prosecutor General's Office.

Further, within 4 hours after receiving the requirement of Roskomnadzor, telecom operators must restrict access to an information resource or specific data, and the hosting provider must inform the owner of the site within 24 hours.

After 72 hours from the moment of deleting the prohibited information, the telecom operator must immediately resume access to the Internet resource.

The draft federal law also notes that FADN is responsible for the validity of the decision to temporarily restrict access to information.

The State Duma proposed to fine Telegram and WhatsApp for refusing to help the FSB

The State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption proposed introducing fines for messengers who refuse to disclose data to the FSB to decode messages. This was announced on Monday, June 20, by the TASS Information Agency of Russia^[152].

Amendments to anti-terrorist legislation were recommended by the chairman of the committee Irina Yarovaya and Senator Viktor Ozerov.

"The

organizer's failure to disseminate information on the Internet to provide the federal executive body in the field of security with the information necessary to decode received, transmitted, delivered or processed electronic messages is proposed to be punished with a fine," the new version of the bill says.

The amount of the fine for refusing to provide data for decoding will be from three to five thousand rubles for citizens, from 30 to 50 thousand rubles for officials, from 800 thousand to one million rubles for legal entities.

As the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Vadim Dengin explained, the amendments will affect not only instant messengers, but also social networks and mail resources that encode messages.

On June 20, the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption recommended obliging mobile operators to store all records of conversations for six months instead of the previously proposed three years^[153].

"Anti-terrorist" package of laws (package "Spring")

Signed by the President of the Russian Federation on July 7, 2016, the law obliges telecom operators and Internet companies to keep the content of calls and user correspondence for six months from July 1, 2018 so that law enforcement agencies can access them. The law will force operators and Internet companies to significantly increase the capacity of their data centers.

These norms come into force on July 1, 2018.

Along with the law, Vladimir Putin signed an order from the government to work out the issue of producing information storage equipment and software in Russia (for more details, see a separate article).

New rights of the FSB and SVR

The adopted law contains a number of new norms in the field of communications and IT. Thus, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), according to amendments to the laws on their activities, received the right to use information systems and databases of state bodies and state extra-budgetary funds necessary for services to carry out their functions. Including SVR will be able to get remote access to such systems.

Changes in the Air Code

The Air Code has been clarified regarding the automated information system for registration of air transportation. Now the requirements for such a system are established by the federal executive body in the field of transport. Now the requirements will be set by the government on the proposal of the relevant executive body and in agreement with the National Anti-Terrorist Committee. In particular, it will be necessary to prescribe requirements for the databases of the system, information protection, the system operator and the information and telecommunication system that ensures its operation.

According to the amendments to the Law "On Postal Service," postal operators will have to take measures to prevent the transportation of prohibited substances (weapons, explosives, etc.). To do this, they can use X-ray television, radioscopic installations, stationary, portable and manual metal detectors, gas analytical and chemical equipment.

Storage of subscriber traffic information by providers and operators

• Internet companies (or, according to the law, organizers of the dissemination of information on the Internet) will store information about the facts of making calls and transmitting texts, videos and other content of Russians during the year. Information about these users will also be stored. Moreover, all data should be located in Russia. The very content of the messages is up to six months. The exact volume and term will be determined by the government.
• Telecom operators must store data on the facts of receiving and transmitting messages and content for three years. Their content itself - up to six months. Here, too, the exact norms will be set by the government.

The heads of the "big four" mobile operators sent a letter to the chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko with a request to reject the "anti-terrorist package" of bills, the Kommersant newspaper reported on June 27. RBC also has a copy of the letter. The leaders of four operators - MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom and Tele2 consider the requirements of the bill impracticable both from a technical and economic point of view, the document says. Representatives of the Big Four companies confirmed the fact of sending a letter to the upper house of parliament. In a letter to Matvienko, top managers recalled that organizing the storage of the content of subscribers' messages would cost 2.2 trillion rubles, and communication tariffs would rise "many times over." Most of the costs do not depend on the shelf life, because they are associated with the creation of systems for managing and searching data, identifying messages, and upgrading communication networks. Now operators do not have the equipment and software necessary for this, write the leaders of the Big Four^[154].

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications expressed its readiness to consider the transfer of data storage on calls and correspondence of Russians to government agencies. This idea is still far from implementation, it is necessary to first discuss all the nuances with representatives of the telecommunications industry and law enforcement agencies, "in whose interests all this is being done," said the head of the ministry Nikolai Nikiforov^[155]. The transfer of this obligation to government agencies was supported by representatives of MTS and MegaFon, noting that they came up with such an idea from the very beginning of the discussion of the law. For today, their point of view has not changed. As added to MTS, it is also necessary to work out the issue related not only to the storage of data, but also to their extraction of information from operator systems. In addition, it is necessary to develop software for cataloguing the entire volume of information, as well as determine which data it makes sense to store in order to achieve the goals of ensuring the safety of citizens.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation in April 2017 officially named the amount necessary for the implementation of the "Spring Law." According to them, telecom operators will have to spend 4.5 trillion rubles ($79.5 billion - at the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation as of April 14, 2017 56.6 rubles per dollar), which is three times more than the turnover of the entire telecommunications industry in 2016. The assessment conclusion is published on the portal regulation.gov.ru. It follows from it that the approximate total costs of telecoms for the purchase of equipment should be up to 3 trillion rubles, and the cost of creating infrastructure for the placement of equipment and the organization of communication channels should be 1.5 trillion rubles. The document signed by Deputy Minister of Communications Dmitry Alkhazovyv notes: "Thus, the total one-time costs of the industry can amount to 4.5 trillion rubles." The conclusion was sent for consideration to the Ministry of Economic Development. The department should make its verdict in the second half of April 2017. The FSB has not previously made a similar assessment. The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications in January 2017 estimated the costs of implementing the provisions of the "Spring Law" at about 100 billion rubles. On the part of telecom operators, there were assumptions that more than 5 trillion rubles would be required, which would simply be an unbearable burden for the industry. As representatives of one of the mobile operators noted, "it is not very clear where to take such funds physically." Since, according to preliminary estimates of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, revenue from all types of communication services, including postal, in 2016 revenue in Russia amounted to 1.66 trillion rubles, which is 2.7 times less than the estimated expenses of telecoms.

Megafon General Director Sergei Soldatenkov proposed introducing an additional tax for mobile operators in order to comply with the provisions of the Yarovaya package on storing user data^[156] The size of the new tax, in his opinion, should be about 1 percent of annual revenue. Of this money, the head of Megafon said, the state could independently create centers for the processing and storage of the data it needs. "This is not our task, a function unusual for us," Soldatenkov emphasized.

To implement the requirements of the Yarovaya-Ozerov anti-terrorist package for storing data on calls and user correspondence, operators will have to increase the number of racks sevenfold. This forecast is given by analysts at iKS-Consulting. According to their calculations, today the "big three" operators represented by MTS, Beeline and MegaFon have a total of 2030 racks, and Rostelecom - 3635. At the same time, according to the Giprosvyaz Design Institute, operators will need 30.6 thousand racks to implement the Spring-Ozerov law. Concomitantly, providers will need to increase their current capacities by at least 7 times in order to comply with the new legislative norms^[157].

Mobile operators greatly exaggerate their dissatisfaction with the Yarovaya package, since before its adoption they also stored data on calls for a long time, said Natalya Kasperskaya, CEO of the Infowatch group of companies. This is reported by TASS. "I have a suspicion that they have kept [call details] for quite some time already. At least we know that mobile operators keep up to several years, they pull out a retrospective easily, on request. In a sense, such a cry (dissatisfaction with the adoption of a package of anti-terrorist laws, the so-called "Spring package") is exaggerated. "

The Association of Regional Operators Rostelecet conducted its own analysis of the consequences of the entry into force of the Spring-Ozerov^[158]. In particular, she calculated on the example of 27 operators, whose total subscriber base is 1.32 million subscribers (this is about 3% of the Russian population), what costs they expect if the new standards are fulfilled.

Rostelecet took for analysis operators of different levels - small, with a subscriber base of up to 10 thousand households, medium (from 10 to 100 thousand subscribers) and large (over 100 thousand households) to compare from whom and what amounts will be required. And at the same time, she made a calculation of different circumstances - the need to store information 12 hours, as well as 1, 3 and 6 months.
If we calculate a potential scenario, based on the requirement to store subscriber data for 6 months, then according to the head of Rosteleceti Oleg Grishchenko, during this time subscribers of only 27 operators will generate traffic of 1 exabyte. It will require 256,800 4 TB hard drives each, 21,400 servers and 1,426 racks to accommodate them, and at the same time 12 MW of electricity.
To understand the scale, it should be said that the largest data center in the world currently belongs to Facebook'y. It is located in Lulleo, Sweden, and is designed to install 7,000 racks with an energy consumption of 86MW. In this case, the storage volume in this data center is up to one exabyte.

According to the extrapolation model according to the Ring Buffer SORM-3, within which data will have to be stored for 12 hours (excluding data centers and operating costs, loans and depreciation), the costs of large telecom operators (OS) to create a storage system will be about 3 thousand rubles per subscriber, and about 4 thousand for medium and small. Translating these figures into a percentage of revenue, for large fixed assets it will cost less than half of annual revenue, for medium and small - more than half of annual revenue.
But as soon as the data retention period reaches 6 months, the numbers become many times longer. From the point of view of costs per subscriber, this is from 16 to 22 thousand rubles, and from the point of view of revenue - from 250 to 400% of the operator's annual turnover.

According to the second model, this is the creation of its own storage systems on basic equipment, but again without taking into account the data center and operating costs - this story will cost operators 5-7.5 thousand rubles per subscriber (subject to six-month data storage), or 80-130% of the annual turnover.

In both cases, the data processing center will add expenses of at least 60 thousand rubles a month for renting a counter, or 720,000 rubles a year. Thus, the lease of 1,426 racks required to store data of 27 operators will amount to 1 026 720 000 rubles a year. As already mentioned several times, operators will have to take money to store data from subscribers, and this means an increase in tariffs by at least 295%, a maximum of 634%.

  

The Rostec company, on the basis of which it is proposed to create a distributed system of data centers for the implementation of the Yarovaya-Ozerov law, has given its own estimate of the costs of fulfilling these requirements. True, not all, but only those that relate to the localization of the production of the necessary software and equipment. According to Rostec's estimates, the restriction of the production of equipment and software in Russia will cost it 10.3 billion rubles, Rostec needs ^[159]. Most of all - 7.15 billion rubles - it will be necessary to spend on the development of domestic servers (5 billion rubles - on chipsets and 2 billion rubles - on processors), another 1.35 billion - on network equipment (900 million rubles - on switches and 450 million rubles - on routers). 850 million rubles will be allocated to localize the release of data storage systems (450 million rubles - to disk controllers, 300 million rubles - to disk shelves). Another 650 million rubles are planned to be spent on application software and 300 million rubles on user jobs based on the Elbrus processor. The listed software and equipment will be able to be produced by Kraftway, Micron, Angstrom-T, United Instrument-Making Corporation, National Center for Informatization (NCI), FSUE EZAN Chernogolovka and Altonika.

Opening encryption keys

Internet services dealing enciphering with information transmitted by users (for example, messengers WhatsApp Telegram,,,) Viber ICQ must provide, upon request state agencies , appropriate tools for decoding user correspondence. In case of refusal to provide the special services with keys for decrypting messages, companies face fines from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. The Internet protocol, HTTPS which ensures the secure transfer of data from many Internet portals, can also suffer from the document. In particular, "," and FacebookVkontakte other Twitter services for communication will be at risk. This mechanism is also used by Internet, banks hotel and ticket booking sites, some MEDIA, online encyclopedias and other all kinds of Internet resources^[160]

On July 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after signing the Yarovaya package, instructed the FSB to find a way to transfer encryption keys on the Internet to this special service in two weeks. The head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, has been appointed responsible for this.

On July 16, 2016^[161] was published on the Kremlin's website^[162], instructing the president to the head of government to prepare the transition of authorities to the use of Russian cryptographic algorithms encryption tools and until December 1, 2017. In particular, the government should ensure the development and implementation of a set of measures necessary for a phased transition to the use of Russian cryptographic algorithms and encryption tools, as well as provide for free access of citizens RUSSIAN FEDERATION to the use of Russian encryption tools.

"In modern implementations of applications for encrypted communication, the keys are with the interlocutors, and not with the company providing the service. That is, to begin with, the implementation of this item is technically impossible, "Vladimir Alexandrovich, vice president and technical director of VK (formerly Mail.ru Group), told Gazeta.Ru

.

Payment systems will be discredited if they are forced to issue encryption keys based on an anti-terrorist package of bills. This opinion was expressed by the Internet Ombudsman Marinichev Dmitry -. "The question of encryption is the most important. Payment systems, if forced to issue keys (encryption - ed.), Will be discredited, and this will lead to a legal collapse. Neither MasterCard, nor Visa, no systems will give their keys, "he said, commenting on the resonant bill. In his opinion, ordinary users will also use encryption. "It is possible to predict an exponential increase in the use of encryption by ordinary consumers up to 97%," said the Internet Ombudsman, adding that this will further strengthen legislative requirements. To overcome encryption, you will need to require people to disclose the encryption keys that they will use, he said. Marinichev noted that "all stored traffic information will be repeatedly duplicated by different providers and operators, which will make it even more vulnerable." "And if big operators are jealous of the information, small providers simply won't have the resources or control, as the flow of transaction information is huge and unknown," he said. Marinichev estimated the total investment of operators in information storage infrastructure at up to 5 trillion rubles. At the same time, only the creation of infrastructure will cost companies 15-20 thousand rubles for each resident of the Russian Federation, excluding the costs of this infrastructure. "80% of the business in the industry will take revenge, since they are unable to create and maintain this infrastructure, not to mention software," said the Internet Ombudsman, explaining that costs for large companies will also be significant.

"This

bill contains a number of articles that, in our opinion, are difficult to implement from a technological point of view... We believe that serious questions will arise with specific law enforcement, "said the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. "We are sure that a number of detailed amendments to these articles are required, which relate to the technological sphere. They relate to the certification of communication equipment, and encryption keys, and, perhaps, detailed information will be required on articles related to data storage and on the facts of calls, etc., "he added. "Of course, we will prepare and propose these amendments based on a specific study with companies. And to prepare already for the new composition of the Duma, "he said. The current composition of the State Duma ceased work on June 24, 2016^[163]

В своем Twitter Edward Snowden I used to work for the government.^[164] Edward Snowden, who received asylum in Russia, wrote that "Putin signed a repressive law that not only violates human rights, but also contradicts common sense." The American stressed that in addition to the political and constitutional consequences, the "Spring Law" is also a tax on the Internet worth more than $33 billion.

Read more: FSB approved the procedure for transferring encryption keys according to the "Spring Law"

The consequences of the law

Шаблон:Main 'Putin instructed the ministers to work out the issue of issuing Russian software and data storage equipment

"There

is no reason for the rise in price of communication services. This is unambiguous, categorical and unambiguous. Unequivocally, because the information that the law establishes requirements for some volume is unreliable, "said Irina Yarovaya, chairman of the Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, on air"Russia 24. " According to her, such information is incorrect and "looks like forgery." "Maybe there is a desire to simply increase tariffs, and I want to find some digestible justification. Objectively, there is no reason for the rise in price. Because there is nothing in the law that would lead to an increase in the cost of anything, "Yarovaya emphasized. She also clarified that the law does not contain a rule on the storage of information, it does not determine the volume and timing, this task is facing the government. "He gives the government the right to decide within two years whether we need to store something or not, to what extent, in relation to what cut of information

."

Nikolay Nikiforov: The entry into force of the most resonant norm regarding the storage of user data is assigned to 2018. The necessary procedure for storing data will be determined by the Government of the Russian Federation. Based on this, we can say with confidence: in 2016, no increase in prices for communication services is expected, as a result of the adoption of a package of anti-terrorist laws.

VPN provider Private Internet Access has stopped its activities in Russia due to data disclosure requirements for the new requirements of the Yarovaya package. The company claims that user data will not be compromised, as required by the new^[165] law^[166]

Another negative consequence is the fact that Russian companies will be placed in unequal conditions. The bill applies to all users, which may violate the laws of other countries and international obligations of Russia. Foreign enterprises may refuse to fulfill these requirements in Russia, as they contradict their legislation. Other states may present similar requirements for the disclosure of keys to Russian corporations.

The implementation of anti-terrorist amendments by deputy Irina Yarovaya and Senator Viktor Ozerov may lead to a 30-40% decrease in purchases in online stores. Such an assessment in a conversation with Vedomosti was given by the President of the National Association of Remote Trade (NADT) Alexander Ivanov^[167].

Russian Post estimated the cost of implementing the law at 500 billion rubles. At the same time, the amendments apply to all companies with licenses for postal services. According to Ivanov, the implementation of the law can double the cost of delivering parcels. As a result, the total number of purchases in online stores may fall by 30-40%. The President of NADT explained that buyers are unlikely to be interested in goods, the delivery^[168] which will cost them twice as much as their cost^[169].

The Constitution of the Russian Federation, however..

Article 23.

• 1. Everyone has the right to privacy, personal and family secrets, protection of their honor and good name.
• 2. Everyone has the right to secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph and other messages. Restriction of this right is allowed only on the basis of a court decision.

Article 24.

• 1. The collection, storage, use and dissemination of information about the private life of a person without his consent is not allowed.

Petitions against the "anti-terrorist package" of the Spring-Ozerov laws at two different sites collected more than 600 thousand signatures. more than 539 thousand people have signed^[170] on the Change.org website^[171] The petition on the website of the Russian Public Initiative, which can be signed only after authorization through the website of public services, collected 62 thousand votes^[172] The Moscow authorities agreed to hold a rally against the "anti-terrorist package of laws" Yarovaya - Ozerova^[173] the^[174] The message is attached to the response of the Department of Regional Security and Anti-Corruption of the city of Moscow, in which the authorities propose to postpone the event from Slavyanskaya Square to Yauzsky Gate Square and reduce the number of participants from 2 thousand to 1 thousand people.

On

July 26, rallies were held in a number of large Russian cities against the so-called "anti-terrorist package" of laws prepared by State Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya and Senator Viktor Ozerov^[175]

A rally against the "Spring Law" in Moscow's Sokolniki Park gathered on August 9, 2016, according to various estimates, from 2,400 to 4,000 people. Blogger Anton Nosik and head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny spoke to the protesters. Blogger Anton Nosik, who spoke at the rally, called the "Spring Law" a serious threat to the observance of the constitutional rights of Russians. He called the control over the personal data of citizens by the security forces a problem, as well as the fact that the cost of storing data will increase 360 times. According to Nosik, innovations will cost the budget 5-7 trillion rubles.

Putin ordered officials to report on Facebook and VKontakte accounts

The President Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law in July 2016 approving a number of requirements for the level of professional formations for officials - in order to increase their "professional level and competence,"^[176]

A number of pre-existing laws, in particular, were amended to introduce a new requirement for citizens applying for positions in the state civil service or municipal service, as well as state civil and municipal employees. This requirement concerns the presentation of information about the placement of information on the Internet.

Now officials will have to provide their employers with information about the addresses of the sites and network pages on which they posted publicly available information, and data that allows them to be identified.

Civil service applicants must describe their network activity over the past three years. Current officials will need to report annually, no later than April 1 of the next reporting year. It is understood that the refusal of this report will not allow a person to occupy public office.

The Public Chamber wants to automate the fight against terrorism

The Public Chamber of Russia prepared materials for blocking extremist content for Russian Internetoperators and social networks in July 2016. There are already appropriate software solutions in the world and Russia - it's only for the goodwill of Internet users. This was told by the first deputy chairman of the OPRF commission on the harmonization of interethnic and interreligious relations Maxim Grigoriev^[177].

- We have collected the logos used in the videos of the ISIS organization banned in Russia. As well as a set of words that are found in extremist materials of Islamists with the corresponding weight coefficients. This work was done with the assistance of the muftiate, - said Grigoriev. According to him, filter programs working with such materials already exist. It's just about setting them up. And then 60-70% of ISIS materials will be blocked automatically. According to a representative of the Public Chamber, the Prosecutor General's Office and Roskomnadzor promptly respond to reports from OPRF experts - hundreds of sites and web pages with extremist materials have already been closed. But automatic filtering will allow you to do this more quickly.

"We cannot oblige Russian Internet companies to install such filters," Grigoriev recalled. "It's about the conscientiousness of their representatives.

"A struggle is unfolding in the virtual space," said Albir Krganov, deputy chairman of the OPRF commission on the harmonization of interethnic and interreligious relations. "The enemy is smart and rich. Extremists are constantly using new approaches on the Web. They have mastered social networks, now they are developing activity in instant messengers.

According to Elena Sutormina, chairman of the OPRF commission for the development of public diplomacy and support of compatriots abroad, now young people talk too much about themselves on social networks. This helps the "gunner" of extremist organizations find suitable candidates for recruitment. Then the "recruiters" come into contact. After that, the candidate for terrorists is assigned to a certain "presenter" who instructs him.

The head of the FSB called on to solve the problem of uncontrolled Internet

To effectively counter the plans of international terrorists, it is necessary to solve the problem of uncontrolled Internet. This, RIA Novosti reports, said the director of the FSBAlexander Bortnikov at an international meeting of special services, security and law enforcement agencies.

First of all, he explained, we are talking about "constant monitoring of national information spaces to identify and block terrorist cyber threats, as well as immediate response to relevant appeals from partner countries to combat terrorism."

Terrorist organizations, the head of the FSB said, "have learned to effectively manage the links of their terrorist networks remotely using all available means of communication," including the Internet, as well as the popular messengers Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber^[178][179].

Ministry of Internal Affairs published documents on monitoring users of social networks

On July 28, 2016, it became known that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region announced the purchase of a software and analytical module for the Zeus information system, which actually fully automates surveillance of social networks and even conducts "semantic analysis" of messages. The competition will take place on August 8, the initial price of the annual license is 1 million 850 thousand rubles. As the local newspaper writes^[180]this system is already being used by the Sverdlovsk police and, according to some information, in seven other regions - for example, in the Lipetsk region, having ^[181] the system, the police optimistically reported on the discovery of latent extremists who "allegedly carried out protest actions."

Шаблон:Main'Zeus Social Network Monitoring Software and Analytical Module

Ministry of Communications refused to regulate Skype and WhatsApp

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media abandoned the idea of ​ ​ regulating the work of VoIP (Voice over IP) operators, including services such as, and Skype Viber , WhatsApp writes "" The Businessman^[182]

From the latest version of the project prepared by the department, which establishes the rules for interaction of telecom operators, the ban on calls to VoIP subscribers in the network of other operators has disappeared.

In addition, the service "international completion of a call to the network of a Russian operator" has been removed from the new version of the project, which, as market participants feared, could lead to the monopolization of the international communications market.

At the same time, the newspaper notes, the document contains a clause on the need for ordinary operators to pay compensation to significant operators who control at least 25 percent of the region's number capacity. We are talking about paying the difference in the cost of passing traffic if the tariff of the former turns out to be higher than the one that the state has established for the latter. In most regions Russia , such a significant operator is Rostelecom"."

2015

A fine for taking a picture of a house with a swastika from the Nazi occupation

A high-profile case with prosecution for a picture with a swastika happened with Polina Petruseva, a journalist at the Smolensk portal readovka.ru. In January 2015, the girl posted on the page on the social network Vkontakte"" a photo of her house during the Nazi occupation. In particular, law enforcement officers were not satisfied with the image of the flag of the Third Reich, which was visible in the documentary picture. Ultimately, Petruseva was fined a thousand rubles for propaganda and public display of Nazi symbols.

What is the danger: the law banning the propaganda or public display of symbols of organizations that collaborated with the Nazis or deny the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal was adopted Russia in the fall of 2014. However, he subsequently Roskomnadzor clarified that images of a swastika without propaganda purposes are permissible.

ON MAY 1, the "Anti-Piracy" Law was expanded^[183] on music, books and programs. Copyright holders have the opportunity to block sites forever if they have violated their rights twice. Perpetual blocking cannot be removed even after the controversial content is deleted.

JUNE In two months, the number of decisions on preliminary blocking under the "anti-piracy" law has grown^[184] by almost four times: in May - June 2014 there were 18 of them, in the same months of 2015 - more than 60. Roskomnadzor called Roskomnadzor^[185] the growth of the Internet cinema market by 58% per year due to the "anti-piracy" law.

On MAY 21, TsNII EISU, which undertook to find out the data of Tor users for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, decided to refuse^[186] from the contract.

SEPTEMBER 1 Amendments to the "law on personal data" began to operate. They oblige foreign companies - Google, Apple, Twitter and others - to store and process data of Russians in data centers in Russia. Some - Samsung, Lenovo, AliExpress, eBay, PayPal, Uber, Booking.com - agreed to do so. If the company refuses to transfer data, then it will be fined 300 thousand rubles, and the services will be blocked. But Facebook and Google cannot be involved in the implementation of the law, since they do not have Russian offices where Roskomnadzor could come with a check. Roskomnadzor promised not to rush to apply the law.

In September 2015, civil activist Dmitry Semenov from Chuvashia was convicted of reposting a demotivator on the VKontakte social network with a caricature of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The user himself denied any accusations, indicating that he had "like" the text of the interview, and the cartoon "tied up" automatically^[187].

The court ruled that Semenov publicly called for extremist activities, and imposed a fine of 150 thousand rubles. However, he immediately amnestied the defendant, which did not satisfy the activist: in April 2016, he appealed to the ECHR. Semenov believes that his right to a fair trial and freedom of expression were violated.

Data from the human rights group "Agora"

The number of proposals for regulating the Internet has dropped sharply. In 2015, the Russian authorities came up with 48 initiatives - this is almost half as much as in 2014. The authorities focused on the implementation of previously adopted norms (that is, on blockages); lawmaking was devoted to clarifying the methods of blocking and expanding the powers and spheres to which laws will apply ^[188]

The number of acts of censorship has grown nine times. In 2015, human rights activists counted more than nine thousand cases, before their number fluctuated in the region of a thousand per year. The sharp increase in acts of censorship came as regions and departments entered a "lockdown reporting race." For example, the Tatarstan prosecutor's office began using an automated content monitoring system, with which it sent 3856 units of prohibited materials to Roskomnadzor.

The quantity hits the quality. Roskomnadzor reports on thousands of court decisions banning information, but no one thinks about their quality: the courts "automatically stamp decisions on recognizing information as prohibited."

Bitcoins have not yet been dealt with. The authorities want to put cryptocurrencies under control, but so far they cannot choose between two approaches - to ban even their mention or simply begin to control them.

Authorities are beginning to recognize the ineffectiveness of blockages. According to the authors of the report, the reason for this is foreign social networks that refuse to cooperate with the authorities and fulfill their requests. The state did not dare to block the unruly sites, even despite the presence of formal grounds (announcements of shares in support of the Navalny brothers).

The authorities began to actively pursue ordinary users for their words. Anti-extremist articles of the Criminal Code and the Administrative Code are actively used against users. In particular, in 2015, 203 users were prosecuted, at least 18 people received real terms. Some of the sentences are related to a new article on calls for separatism.

The number of regions where active censorship operates has doubled. Traditionally, "an extremely high level of pressure" on users was exerted by Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tatarstan. In 2015, they were joined by Mordovia (local prosecutors fought against drug propaganda), Ulyanovsk region (selling documents, alcohol and devices to deceive meters) and Chechnya (insulting the feelings of Muslims).

The authorities actively fought against insulting the feelings of believers. In 2015, human rights activists recorded more than five thousand cases of administrative pressure on users and the media. In many respects, the claims were related to the publication of cartoons on religious themes (in particular, drawings by Charlie Hebdo), insulting the feelings of believers and demonstrating a swastika.

The level of violence against internet activists and journalists remains significant. At least 28 bloggers and journalists were attacked and threatened - this figure was at the level of the previous two years.

Then it will be worse. Due to the crisis and budget savings, the burden on employees making decisions on blocking will grow, and the quality of their work will fall. Human rights activists expect tougher practices of criminal prosecution of Internet users. In addition, citizens may face restrictions on access to foreign services.

Users are not afraid. They are actively mastering ways to bypass locks and secure communication channels. "Users are clearly preparing to overcome censorship and defend their right to access information," the authors of the report summarize.

2014

FEBRUARY 1 Roskomnadzor received the right to block sites for extremism and calls for riots.

JUNE 28 The law prohibiting extremist activity and calls for it was^[189] of the Russian^[190] on the Internet. It is regularly used for posts on social networks, reposts, likes and comments.

JULY After a meeting of the Security Council of the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Defense, the FSB, the FSO, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Rostelecom^[191] to check whether the Internet in Russia will work after disconnecting from the world network. The participant in the exercises claimed that^[192] Russian Internet will continue^[193] to function.

On July 11, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the^[194] competition for identifying ways to obtain data on users of the anonymous Tor browser.

^[195]law^[196]"blogger law." It imposes on blogs and pages on social networks, which are visited by more than 3 thousand people per day, responsibility for slander, false information and publication of state secrets. They must be marked in a separate registry, indicate names and contacts on the sites.

1 AUGUST At the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, communities on the VKontakte network were blocked about the march for the federalization of Siberia, which activist Artyom Loskutov planned to hold in Novosibirsk in August. Roskomnadzor threatened 14 sites (Slon.ru, TJournal, BBC, Rosbalt and others) with blocks for notes about the action, which indicated the time and place of the event. The publications were removed^[197] or changed the publications. The march for federalization did not take place.

V.V. Putin: We do not intend to restrict access to the network, put it under total control, state the Internet

A meeting of the Security Council on the protection of the Russian segment of the network from external threats was held on October 1, 2014. President Vladimir Putin said then that "we do not intend to restrict access to the network, put it under total control, state the Internet"^[198] to^[199].

"It is important to ensure the stability and security of the Russian segment of the Internet. I want to emphasize that we do not intend to restrict access to the network, put it under total control, and state the Internet, "the president said. He added that the state does not intend to limit the legitimate interests and opportunities of people, public organizations, business in the information sphere

.

He also stated that some states are trying to use their dominant position in the global information space to achieve not only economic, but also military-political goals. During the meeting, Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov reported to the head of state on the results of the exercises that took place in July in order to check the possibility of turning off the Runet from the outside.

As a source told RBC then, the results of the exercises were classified. He added that the interested parties interpreted them differently: the government considered that there was no serious threat, and the Kremlin and the special services were convinced that "not everything is in order" and it was necessary to act.

What surveillance technologies the special services used at the Sochi 2014 Olympics

In

mid-October 2016, Alpina Publisher"" will release in Russian a book by journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, "The Battle of Runet: How the Authorities Manipulate Information and Monitor Each of Us." The book was first published in English by PublicAffairs in 2015 under the title The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russiaʼs Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries. This is a series of investigations into how Russia Internet information is also controlled, and intelligence agencies collect data on citizens. With the permission of the publishing house "" Jellyfish publishes a fragment of the chapter "Sochi-2014: Follow yourself" - about what surveillance technologies the special services used at the Olympics in. Sochi On behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the FSB was responsible for security at the 2014 Games. Soldatov and Borogan say that the authorities decided to rely on the experience of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 - namely, to strengthen surveillance of special services and isolate the territory of the Games from the outside world.

The US State Department urged people traveling to Sochi to be extremely careful:

"Consider a trip with a" clean 'electronic device, and if not necessary, do not take it either. Otherwise, all information to identify the owner of the device and all important files must be deleted or "sanitized." Wireless devices must be disconnected from Wi-Fi for as long as possible. At the airport, don't put your personal electronic devices in your luggage... Do not connect to local chains in cafes, restaurants, hotels, airports and other establishments... Change your passwords before and after your trip... Remove your smartphone's battery whenever you don't use it.Commercially available technology can track your location and activate your phone's microphone. Keep in mind that any electronic device can be compromised... If you do need to use your phone during your trip, consider using a "one-time" phone with a local SIM card purchased for cash. Delete all messages as soon as possible.

On August 19, 2013, six months before the start of the Olympics, Putin signed decree No. 686, actually turning Sochi into a fortified fortress. From January 7 to March 21, 2014, any cars other than officially accredited were prohibited from entering the city. A ban was established on any protests in the region. And these were only visible walls of the fortress.

Everyone who wanted to get to Sochi had to go through the verification procedure of the Russian special services. The authorities have introduced a requirement to obtain a "Fan Passport," which is mandatory for all guests. To do this, it was necessary to register passport data and a photo on a special website, and then wait for the FSB to check the information.

If there was no suspicion, the applicant received a "Fan Passport." Only after that it was possible to buy tickets for the competition. So the special services openly collected data on tens of thousands of people from all over the world.

Even the traditional security measures in Sochi impressed - 40 thousand seconded police officers (70 thousand security officials in total) and more than five thousand surveillance cameras throughout the city. To process data from cameras, a situation center was built in Sochi, equipped with the most modern video stream analysis system. The cost of the program amounted to more than one and a half billion rubles; most, 1.2 billion, was given by MegaFon, one of the national mobile operators. At the Olympics in Sochi, it was first planned to use drones for surveillance, which were actively purchased by the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Special services, among other things, installed several sonar complexes along the sea in order to be able to detect submarines and thereby exclude the possibility of attack from the sea.

2013

Providers began to manually block extremist sites from the FSEM list

As of April 2013, a number of large Internet providers - Megafon, Yota, MGTS - began blocking access to sites recognized as extremist. True, providers have to manually monitor the corresponding list of the Ministry of Justice, and it still does not work to completely block all extremist materials.

In addition to the list of banned sites, which has been maintained by Roskomnadzor since November 2012, a number of large Internet providers have begun blocking resources from the Federal List of Extremist Materials (FSEM), which is maintained by the Ministry of Justice. CNews revealed this practice during testing conducted on networks of various providers.

"The list of the Ministry of Justice is checked daily by the company's employees responsible for this area of ​ ​ activity for the appearance of new records," said Dmitry Smirkin, a representative of Megafon. - If there are new records, the presence of a clearly indicated link is analyzed, and if there is one, we block the specified resources. But we are not engaged in independent searches for prohibited content on the Internet, i.e. if any book is indicated in the list, we should not search for all links on which we can download it. "

Resources are also blocked in the Yota network (brand) Yota , this was confirmed by a source in the company. The facts of blocking sites recognized as extremist were also found on the network. MGTS True, in (MTS the controlling shareholder of MGTS) they take a more cautious position and say that so far they are only considering opportunities to block sites from the FSEM.

They are not engaged in independent monitoring of the FSEM in VimpelCom and Akado. As for Rostelecom, in a number of regions of Central Russia, the corresponding operator system began to block resources from the FSEM, which led to blocking access to sites such as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, YouTube, etc. Immediately after that, the "experiment" was discontinued. How further Rostelecom will work with the FSEM, the company does not say.

However, even a meticulous study of the FSEM will not insure providers from claims from the authorities. Often, the materials included in the list are not tied to the Internet at all. But prosecutors still believe that providers should block them.

So, in January 2013, the prosecutor's office of the Ordzhonikidze district of Yekaterinburg demanded through the court from the local branch of Akado to block access to sites containing songs of the Cyclone B group. They were recognized as extremist back in 2007 by the decision of the Nagatinsky District Court of Moscow, but no Internet addresses were contained in this decision.

And in March 2013, the prosecutor's office of the city of Michurinsk, Tambov Region, discovered the possibility of access through the local provider Telesputnik to Nikolai Fedorov's poem "Chuda-Yuda," recognized as extremist. But the corresponding decision of the Sakhalin court also did not contain any Internet addresses.

Perhaps the problems will be solved after the adoption of amendments to the Law "On Information," proposed at the beginning of 2013 by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. The amendments introduce procedures for centralized blocking of sites based on court decisions. After the verdict is passed, the court or authorized person transfers the address of the corresponding page to Roskomnadzor for its inclusion in the "black list." True, this procedure will concern only those decisions that will be made after the entry into force of the relevant legislative changes ^[200]].

More than 83 thousand sites were illegally blocked in a year in the Russian Federation

During the year of operation (November 2012 - November 2013) of the unified register of Roskomnadzor of domain names and network addresses containing information, the distribution of which is prohibited in the Russian Federation, 83,215 thousand sites were illegally blocked, Artem Kozlyuk^[201], head of the RosKomSvoboda movement, told reporters].

The share of illegally blocked resources after the start of the registry, according to Kozlyuk, amounted to 98% of the total number of blocked sites. The reasons for blocking respectable resources were their placement on the same network addresses with prohibited sites. The peak of blocking, according to RosComSvoboda, occurred in October: 320 IP addresses were entered into the register, where 35.5 thousand domains were located.

In

turn, the deputy head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Alexei Volin said earlier that conscientious owners of Internet resources that use the same IP address at which the blocked site is located and whose resources will therefore also be blocked should not save on collective IP addresses. "Buy your own IP address - and sleep quietly. Or, if you want to use "communal" hosting, check who your neighbors are, "Volin said.

2012

Proposals of the Prosecutor General's Office to finalize the law "On Communications"

At the end of April 2012, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika sent a letter to the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in which he reported on numerous cases of violation of the law on the Internet identified by his department.

"Everywhere prosecutors reveal the facts of posting on the Internet information containing propaganda of Nazism, extremism, child prostitution and pornography, violence, cruelty," writes Chaika. Information about narcotic substances is distributed via the Internet, and the availability of "information inducing suicide" on the Internet is one of the reasons for the updated problem of teenage suicides, he said. There are many other violations - casinos moved to the Internet, it is easy to find other people's personal data here, etc. ^[202]

.

To combat illegal content more effectively, the Prosecutor General proposed to finalize the law "On Communications": clearly distinguish between the powers of government agencies to regulate the Internet and empower Roskomnadzor to make mandatory instructions to Internet providers to restrict access to certain information. For those operators who cannot establish proper filtering of illegal content and do not block violating sites, Chaika proposes to establish responsibility, and considers it necessary to empower domain registrars to deprive such sites of domain names and notify law enforcement agencies.

The head of the government apparatus, Anton Vaino, instructed the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Justice to study the proposals of the Prosecutor General's Office and submit proposals, follows from his instructions to these departments.

The Law "On Communications" at the moment allows you to disable sites not only by court decision, but also "on the basis of a reasoned decision of one of the<...> leaders of the body carrying out operational-search activities or ensuring the security of the Russian Federation," in cases established by law. True, this order is considered illegal and contrary to the presumption of innocence by State Duma deputy Andrei Tychinin, who in April 2012 submitted to the State Duma draft amendments to the law "On Communications." If the amendments are adopted, then it will be possible to close the site only by a court decision.

The fact is that often the prosecutor's office cannot prove in court the fact of the illegal activities of the site, Pashkov continues. In addition, Internet providers purely technically cannot 100% close access to certain sites: there are proxy servers and other technologies that allow users to bypass the blocking, he says. It is necessary to fight illegal content, Pashkov does not argue, but there are other ways for this: for example, you can oblige search engines to remove queries on the word "drugs" from search results.

Disabling file sharing Rabidshare.info

In 2012, the Samara District Court added to the list of minjust.net - the "mirror" of the FSEM with links to prohibited materials, as well as the "censorship-free" file-sharing service Rabidshare.info.

Surge in bans over'Innocence of Muslims' film

After the case in Khabarovsk in 2011, prosecutors in the regions intensified the fight against extremism on the Internet. In 2012, the Sova Center, which studies issues of countering extremism, records several dozen warnings or lawsuits against providers in connection with the possibility of accessing materials from the FSEM through their networks. The "surge" of such a struggle was in the fall of 2012 due to the scandalous film "Innocence of Muslims." Moreover, in a number of regions, prosecutors demanded to close access to the entire YouTube server, although only one address with this video was included in the FSEM.

Cautions or lawsuits are put forward to both local providers and federal ones. Thus, VimpelCom was convicted of "distributing" extremist materials in the Arkhangelsk, Saratov and Murmansk regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, the republics of Buryatia, Chechnya and Mari El. Rostelecom was similarly "caught" in the Sverdlovsk, Ulyanovsk, Sakhalin, Penza, Belgorod, Oryol and Saratov regions, and in the Lipetsk region and Krasnodar Territory, prosecutors caught the provider in the absence of filtering access to extremist materials from schools.

"Got" and "Russian Post": in Bashkiria, Tambov and Kostroma regions, prosecutors found the spread of extremist materials through collective Internet access points. In most such cases, providers agree to voluntarily eliminate violations, in some cases, fines are imposed on provider officials.

Errors of the courts do not allow the blocking of extremist materials automatically

Unlike the "black list" of Roskomnadzor, sites from the FSEM cannot be downloaded automatically. In the list of Roskomnadzor, each entry contains the full address (URL) of the prohibited material and the IP address of the corresponding server, and the provider has the right to block them by IP or URL. The courts pass their verdicts in a completely arbitrary format, and the Ministry of Justice does not make any amendments and clarifications to these decisions.

Often, the addresses mentioned in court decisions contain errors. The most common error is the indication of the beginning of the address in the form of "http//" (without the character": "). The Kogalym District Court of the Khanty-Mansiysk District recognized the video posted on the website "WWW.VKONTAKTE" as extremist, and the Biysk District Court of the Altai Territory issued a similar decision regarding the video with "http//www/you tube.com." Another example is from the Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk: recognizing the material of one of the bloggers in LJ as extremist, instead of direct reference, the court indicated in its decision the path generated when switching to this entry in LJ from "My World."

There are more difficult cases when it is not possible to understand for certain what exactly the judge meant at all. Thus, the Sovetsky District Court of Orel recognized a number of materials from the local free encyclopedia as extremist Orlec.ru. We are talking about the articles "Mosque," "Economics," "Aquarium" and "Update." Obviously, there can be many articles with such titles.

In the case of social networks, courts often indicate their nickname instead of the address of a specific user, and instead of the address of a specific material they try to describe it. Thus, the Leninsky District Court of Saransk recognized one of the Vkontakte users as extremist "photo No. 59 in the section" 309 photos. " It remains unclear what will happen if the user adds, for example, one photo, and the name of the photo album changes.

The Industrial Court of Kursk analyzed one of the extremist video videos from the Vkontakte network: the technical name of the file, its format, volume and duration were determined. But there is no specific link, nor even the name of the video in the court decision. Considering that this user has more than 300 videos, it will not be easy for providers to find him.

2011: Precedent: Transtelecom punished for access to NBP website

Providers preferred not to notice the FSEM. But in 2011, the Supreme Court satisfied the claim of the Khabarovsk prosecutor's office against the local branch of Transtelecom to block access to the website of an unregistered NBP party. The court decision emphasized that providers are obliged to restrict users' access to extremist materials.

2009

The arrival of foreign investors in Runet needs to be controlled

The arrival of foreign investors in Russian Internet companies called on the president to control: Russia Dmitry Medvedev"These are security issues. A few years ago, our business believed that the entire Russian Internet costs about $200 million. But then came the era of rapid development and inflated expectations. As a result, before the crisis, the value of assets was about $5 billion, maybe even more. Now, of course, this cost has fallen. But this does not mean that this process should not be paid attention. There are states no less, and even more technologically developed than, Russia but their Internet is growing more slowly, because the state pays less attention to this, because all this is at the mercy of the market. In some situation, we were forced to use non-market technologies, in particular, when held Internet in schools. "

Before Medvedev, the Minister of Communications and Mass Media Igor Shchegolev said that foreigners should not be the owners of large Runet companies.

After these statements, it became known that Yandex, the largest search engine on the Runet, intends to transfer the "golden share," which gives the right to veto some of the company's transactions, to Sberbank.

Concepts of Internet regulation

The division of the Internet into commercial and humanitarian

On April 14, 2009, the working group of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy considered the concept of the law on the Internet, prepared by the director of the International Research Institute Astamur Tedeev. The essence of the concept is the division of the Internet into two areas: humanitarian (media, exchange of written information) and electronic economic activity.

Tedeev argues that the humanitarian sphere must be given the maximum amount of freedom, and electronic should be regulated on a par with ordinary commercial companies. According to Schlegel, within the framework of this concept, earnings from online advertising do not apply to economic activity. The author of the concept proposes to recognize electronic payment systems and online stores as commercial.

Based on this document, such companies are recommended to fully disclose information, that is, to publish on the website the name of the legal entity, address, TIN, which will provide the opportunity for the companies themselves to challenge Internet transactions in courts, and it will be easier for customers to make claims against the purchased product.

Club filtering

It is very likely that filtering of Internet traffic in Russia will be carried out using "club ideology." This idea was expressed by the head of the Ministry of Communications Igor Shchegolev. "We have to create a club ideology of using the Internet. If I want a normal internet for my children to have access to trusted resources and be protected from spam, I work with a'club' that can be paid a little more for what it filters, weeds out unwanted content for me.'

At the same time, those who wish can do without such filters, "we must give people the freedom to choose the mode of work on the Internet," the minister stressed.

A source in the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications explained to CNews that now "this is not about implementation, but about the desirability of creating such an ideology." According to him, the ministry thinks how it would be possible to implement the system of "clubs" in Runet, and it is too early to talk about the existence of a ready-made "club concept."

The concept of "clubs" on the Internet is little known in Russia, but has existed on the Web since its inception, commented on the words of the minister, an expert on Internet intelligence, the head of the Inforus consortium, Andrei Masalovich. "In the early 'romantic' period of the Web, there were so-called clubs for their own, where it was impossible for an outsider to get, if only because he did not know the address," he says. Later, "clouds" appeared - groups of servers that are "friends" only with each other.

The simplest example of an existing "club for their own" is the Pentagon server. The Chinese intranet and the United Arab Emirates network are also peculiar "clubs" that have grown to the size of the country.

According to the expert, speaking of "clubs" in Runet, Minister Shchegolev implied a combination of providers, content manufacturers and filter developers who are able to provide paid traffic filtering services.

Masalovich characterizes the "club idea" as "flawless from the moral side, since the fragile consciousness of children still needs to be protected from network realities, and different from the point of view of the Internet development strategy, if only because search engines no longer have time for the growth of the Web."

Restrict access to foreign resources through the

Information on "providing access to foreign resources on the Internet through the gateway" is contained in the report of Russoft President Valentin Makarov "Proposals for measures to promote the development of the information society." He believes that the gateway will not be used to infringe on freedoms on the Internet and unfair use can be avoided: "International rules and standards for classifying sources of information as dangerous to society must be developed, and the management of the national network based on a dialogue between the state and the user community is organized."

Makarov believes that in the process of creating a domestic gateway, the experience of states that have already implemented such projects will be useful, or are going to do so in the near future: for example, China, Japan and Singapore.

See also: The Great Chinese Firewall

Material from the "Moshkov Library" recognized as extremist

In 2009, the Cherepovets City Court recognized the Samizdat section of the famous Maxim Moshkov Library as extremist due to the presence of a book by local opposition leader Viktor Dunaev.

2008

The authorities seriously thought about the importance of the Russian Internet only in the fall of 2008. Then Yandex began to feel one after another trouble: its new data center could not be launched due to bureaucratic problems, a criminal case was opened in which the head of the company Arkady Volozh appeared, and entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov showed interest in buying the company. Yandex feared an unfriendly takeover.

The reasons for the dissatisfaction of the authorities with Arkady Volozh were explained at a reception with Dmitry Medvedev, who was then Prime Minister. I showed screenshots from the title page of the Yandex.News aggregator taken during the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008. There were news from Georgian sources on the title page.

To clarify the situation, the deputy head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov and the deputy head of the internal policy department of the Presidential Administration Konstantin Kostin visited the Yandex office. Volozh instructed the head of Yandex.News, Lev Gershenzon, to explain to officials that the selection of news in this service is not carried out by people, but by a robot acting according to a special algorithm.

Yandex was shocked by the results of negotiations with the authorities. But Gershenzon began to convince the company's management not to follow the lead of officials. In the spring of 2009, Konstantin Kostin visited Yandex again. The company offered him a compromise option: providing officials with partner status marked "representative of the newsmaker concerned" and creating a hotline through which people from the Presidential Administration would be explained the features of the news algorithm.

2007

Security officials received 265 thousand permits from ships for wiretapping and interception of messages

Statistics indicate that in 2007, the special services received 265,937 permits from Russian courts to listen and record telephone conversations, as well as intercept e-mail, including messages on social networks and instant messengers.

Federal List of Extremist Sites (FSEM)

FSEM appeared in 2007 after the corresponding amendments to the Law "On Countering Extremism." If, on the basis of a court decision from any Russian region, the material is recognized as extremist, the Ministry of Justice adds it to the list published on its website, after which the distribution of this material is prohibited. Initially, the list included "works" on material media: leaflets, books, videos, materials on CDs, etc.

But over time, materials (articles, individual quotes, images, audio and video videos) from the Internet began to fall into the FSEM more and more often. The "record holder" for the number of hits on the list is the VKontakte network. Separate pages from Odnoklassniki, Livejournal, Wordpress, My World, Народ.ру and other popular services also appeared in FSEM.

2005: Prosecutors' claims against ISPs

Since 2005, the prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation has been filing lawsuits against operators demanding to block certain sites, Mikhail Pashkov, legal adviser to the National Association of House Information and Communication Networks, told Vedomosti. If the operator does not close access to the site, which the court declared illegal, he, as a legal entity or his head, faces administrative punishment - a fine, the amount of which is determined by the court, says MTS representative Valeria Kuzmenko.

1999: The State climbs into the Web

The threat of state regulation hung over the Russian Internet at the end of 1999. Then the Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman and the Minister of Press Mikhail Lesin proposed to take away the authority to manage the .RU domain zone from the Russian Research Institute for the Development of Public Networks (RosNIIRos), created at the Kurchatov Institute.

It was assumed that the domains will be registered by the Ministry of Communications, and all state and commercial organizations will have to acquire their own domains. The Ministry of Printing was supposed to deal with the registration of online media.

RosNIIRos still had to "hand over" the domain sphere: the functions of managing the.Ru zone passed to a public organization - the Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain (CC), and the RosNIIRos registration business was transferred to Ru-Center. At the same time, the CC began to accredit other domain registrars.

"1999 can be called the year of business on the Russian Internet" - this is how the representative of Gostelecom Ivan Kurnosov spoke at the opening of the Internetcom '99 exhibition held in October 1999. This business is not yet too active - according to Kurnosov, the total revenue of Russian Internet projects this year will be only $6 million. However, the turnover is growing rapidly, and the state is already interested in this money. Ivan Kurnosov promised that in the near future Gostelecom will develop a legislative framework for the Russian Internet, and will also regulate the distribution of domain addresses in the ".ru zone" (now the Russian Research Institute for the Development of Public Networks is doing this). There are rumors that the Ministry of Press wants to intercept the rights of the State Television and Radio to operate the Runet. The rezons of the Ministry of Printing are as follows: the Internet has turned into a mass media, therefore,[203] must obey the "profile"[204].

1995

In 1995, at the birthday of the head of the Kurchatov Institute, Yevgeny Velikhov, the head of FAPSI, Alexander Starovoitov, announced unexpected news: Aleksei Soldatov becomes his adviser. Relkom and FAPSI conceived a joint project "Business Network": it was assumed that the largest enterprises would connect this given network to the Internet, which provides high-quality communication and reliable encryption. However, this project was never implemented.

1990

The Internet in the Soviet Union appeared in 1990, when the Relkom company created at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy through the Eunet network received access to the Global Computer Network. Subsequently, Relkom carried out corporatization and in the 1990s was the leader in the market providing Internet access^[205].

Relkom needed an influential partner to develop in a rapidly growing market. The head of Relkom, Aleksei Soldatov, tried to find such a partner in the person of the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information (FAPSI), the special services formed as a result of the division of the KGB and responsible for the security of government communications and regulation of the cryptography market.