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09 December 2020The Russian Duma approved at first reading the bill that allows Russian lawmakers to block the giants of the Internet who discriminate against the Russian mass media.
The Russian Attorney General and his deputies, after consulting the Foreign Ministry, will be able to attribute to the owner of an information site the status of "violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation".
In this case, the Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, IT and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) may proceed with the darkening of the portal, restrict access or slow down traffic.
In the crosshairs of the law are the giants of the YouTube, Twitter and Facebook network, but it will potentially apply to all sites, regardless of their jurisdiction and place of registration.
Russian lawmakers also threaten to apply a fine of 3 million rubles (about 30 thousand euros) to portals guilty of restrictions or limitations on the rights of Russian citizens regarding access to Russian mass media hosted on online platforms.
In the past, Roskomnadzor had already accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of censorship of 20 Russian mass media, mostly public: RIA Novosti, TV Russia 1 and the Sputnik news agency.
The Kremlin would support the application of restrictions on foreign network giants.