The State Duma(Russia) allowed to fine Facebook and YouTube for censorship, and Russians - for libel on the Internet
On December 23, the State Duma adopted a number of laws regulating the operation of the Russian Internet. Among them - heavy fines for Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for not removing prohibited content and censorship in the Russian media.
Censorship will not pass
One of the bills adopted in the third and final reading concerns the sensational story of the censorship of the Russian media . Foreign Internet platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, have been punished for restricting access to pages based on race, nationality or political affiliation.
Fines alone (up to 3 million rubles) will not be enough here: they also plan to punish foreign social networks for discriminating against Russians by blocking or slowing down traffic.
Social networks have tightened responsibility for content
Another of the adopted bills simplifies the work of Roskomnadzor and imposes additional obligations on social networks. From now on, prohibited content, including advertising for the illegal sale of alcohol and online casinos, child pornography, information about drugs and suicide, platforms will be required to identify and block on their own. In addition, the moderators' work will be supplemented by the requirement to restrict access to information that expresses disrespect for society, the state, the Constitution, as well as that has signs of extremism and calls for uncoordinated rallies.
At the same time, a social network is understood as any resource with the ability for users to maintain a personal page and an audience of more than 500,000 users per day. The register of social networks will be kept by Roskomnadzor. According to the explanatory note to the bill, it is often large sites that do not delete illegal information. For example, YouTube ignored over 10,000 pages with prohibited information, Twitter and Instagram over 1,400 pages.
Now large fines are threatened for refusal or untimely removal of illegal content:
for individuals from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles;
for officials from 200,000 to 400,000 rubles;
for legal entities from 800,000 to 4 million rubles.
If we are talking about calls for extremism, child pornography and information about drugs, the fines are doubled, and for repeated violations, citizens will have to pay from 200,000 to 500,000 rubles, officials - from 800,000 to 1 million rubles, and companies say goodbye from 10–20% of annual proceeds, but not less than 8 million rubles.
Two for the slanderers
Ordinary users of the Runet will have to take care of themselves. Another law , approved by the State Duma, provides for criminal liability for the dissemination of libel on the Internet, in the media or on any other public platform. The measure of responsibility ranges from two months of arrest to two years of imprisonment - before, the maximum could be fined 5 million rubles or assigned compulsory work.
However, aggravating circumstances are also possible here:
for libel with the use of official position, imprisonment can be up to three years;
for unsubstantiated statements that someone suffers from a disease that poses a danger to others (from HIV and coronavirus to mental illness), faces imprisonment for up to four years;
charges of rape, felony or especially felony may result in five years in prison.
Earlier, Russia approved fines for the rudeness of officials
Russia could ban Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for ‘censoring’ content
A draft legislation in this regard has been passed in the lower house of the Russian parliament.
Russia has been stepping up its efforts to control the Russian content on the internet in recent years.
Russia ban on internet platforms: Russia might block internet-based platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter! Lawmakers in Russia are thinking of allowing regulators to block social media platforms Facebook and Twitter and Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube if they find that these platforms have been censoring the content posted by Russian citizens, according to reports. A draft legislation in this regard has been passed in the lower house of the Russian parliament. The parliament released a statement saying that the authorities would have the power to target internet-based platforms upon finding them to be limiting information based on language as well as nationality.
State Duma, the lower house of the parliament in Russia, also added that websites found to be discriminating against Russian media’s content would also be banned. The decision was taken after authorities received several complaints from the Russian media this year that their accounts were being censored by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, all of which are US-based companies. Notably, earlier in 2020, the tech giants based in the US had introduced labels to identify media outlets affiliated with their respective governments.
Now that the draft legislation has been passed in the lower house, it would be presented before the upper house, where also it would need to be passed. Once done, Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign the bill, effectively turning it into a law. Reports believe that these steps are mere formalities.
Russia has been stepping up its efforts to control the Russian content on the internet in recent years, supposedly to “combat online extremism”. Last week, Google was fined by a court in Moscow, since the search engine giant did not take down online content that had been banned by the authorities in Russia.
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