Online Freedom

[ИнфоПоиск]

The Ministry of Communications is much tougher on the regulation of the Internet than the State Duma. The amendments prepared by the deputies say that everything is allowed on the Internet, which is not prohibited. Officials believe that law enforcement agencies can close websites and issue instructions to providers. A working group of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy has prepared a draft law that will regulate the use of the Internet in Russia, Vedomosti reports. Amendments to the law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” introduce basic concepts - global computer networks and a website operator - as well as define the boundaries of the jurisdiction of national legislation in the global network. The working group was created on the initiative of United Russia. Among the drafters of the law are Mikhail Fedotov, Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia (author of the current media law), Astamur Tedeev, head of the UNESCO Chair at the Higher School of Economics, Pavel Gusev, editor-in-chief of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, internet expert Anton Nosik. The bill will not be submitted to the State Duma until the fall, promises member of the working group, United Russia deputy Robert Schlegel: the Internet is a very sensitive topic, so it is important that industry participants and Internet users discuss it. According to Schlegel, the bill was sent to the presidential administration and the government. The main idea that the authors are trying to carry out is the following: on the network you can do everything that you can do in real life. Any attempt to introduce additional restrictions is illegal. The authors of the project expect the president to support the initiative. Schlegel recalls that the Ministry of Communications has already prepared an alternative bill, which significantly expands the rights of law enforcement agencies when working with providers and Internet sites. For example, it is proposed to oblige all providers and registrars to suspend the domain by a reasoned letter from the law enforcement agency and restrict users' access to information posted on the network upon the recommendation of the prosecutor. De facto, these standards are already working. One of the basic positions of the bill prepared in the State Duma is that in no case should there be restrictions on the rights of legal entities and individuals out of court, Tedeev says: any restriction is possible only with the approval of the court. The bill states that the transfer of information using global computer networks is carried out without restriction - if the law is not violated, and the information is directly responsible for the information, but not the operator providing access to the network. According to the Duma version, relations in the network fall under the jurisdiction of Russian laws, if their object is property located on the territory of Russia, or resident individuals and legal entities are parties to such relations. That is, if the creators and moderators of the site are in Russia, and their server is abroad, then they are still responsible for their site. This differs from the proposals of the Ministry of Communications, where they propose to extend national regulation to situations where damage is caused on the territory of Russia or access to the Internet is carried out on the territory of the country. The jurisdiction criteria proposed in the Duma bill are far-fetched, says Yulian Zinina, a leading legal adviser at Yandex: they do not allow determining which business belongs to the Russian one. And this is a very important issue regarding all companies entering international markets, she emphasizes, the bill also does not solve the important issue of using digital signatures and the responsibility of providers for placing illegal content on their resources. Source: Vedomosti

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

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