State Duma deputies adopted in the first reading a bill that slightly changes the rules of operation of social networks. The document has passed the first reading, and the second and third are coming. But most likely it will be accepted.
We tell you what will change for ordinary users after the law comes into force.
What is the essence of the bill?
The main message is this: the law must protect users from misinformation on the Internet. This includes fake news.
The document also involves the introduction of user identification on social networks by mobile phone number and moderation of visitors’ posts. In fact, this will not allow you to use social networks anonymously, since SIM cards are sold using a passport.
The text of the bill states: “Do not allow the use of a public network for the purpose of committing criminal offenses, disclosing information constituting state or other secrets specially protected by law, distributing materials containing public calls for terrorist activities or publicly justifying terrorism, other extremist materials, and also materials promoting pornography, the cult of violence and cruelty, and materials containing obscene language."
What is a large network?
According to the text of the bill, a large public network is one that is accessed by more than one hundred thousand Internet users during the day.
What else are the owners of a public network obliged to do?
They must create a representative office of the owner of the public network on the territory of the Russian Federation. They must also comply with the obligations of the organizer of information dissemination on the Internet, provided for in Article 101 of this Federal Law.
It is also necessary to “limit access or delete, at the request of a user of a public network, information disseminated on it that is clearly aimed at promoting war, inciting national, racial or religious hatred and enmity, and other information for the dissemination of which provides for criminal or administrative liability, within 24 hours from the receipt of the said application,” the document says.
What happens if Roskomnadzor or other departments notice violations?
The post will need to be deleted.
“The federal executive body exercising the functions of control and supervision in the field of media, mass communications, information technology and communications, within 24 hours of receiving them, reviews them and sends an order to the owner of the public network to immediately stop disseminating the information specified in part 10 of this article,” the text of the bill says.
The punishment is quite severe: a fine of up to 50 million rubles. Repeated violations may result in sites being blocked.
If the owner of a public network fails to comply with the requirement specified in Part 11 of this article, the federal executive body exercising control and supervision functions in the field of media, mass communications, information technology and communications, restricts access to the information specified in this requirement.
The Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region has developed a bill “On the legal regulation of the activities of social networks.” It involves a strict procedure for the admission and identification of users, who will be required to create pages only under their real name.
When registering, you will have to provide your passport information. Children under 14 years old will be prohibited from entering social networks altogether. Submission of the project to the State Duma is scheduled for April 5.
According to the bill “On the legal regulation of the activities of social networks and on amendments to certain legislative acts” (its text is available to Izvestia), only a person who has reached the age of 14 can be a user of a social network. When registering, the owner of the service is required to check the passport details of Russian and foreign citizens. For violating this rule, the legal entity that owns the site faces a fine of 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles. If the user did not report a change in data or deliberately provided false information, he faces a fine of 1 thousand to 3 thousand rubles.
You can create only one page and only under your real name and surname, otherwise a fine will follow: the site owner - up to 300 thousand rubles, the user - up to 5 thousand. Users under 18 years of age are prohibited from joining communities where information prohibited for children is posted . Otherwise, parents will have to pay a fine of up to 2 thousand rubles. Selling any goods to minors through social networks will also be punishable by law. In addition, the document proposes a ban on advertising of “occult-magical nature and smoking mixtures.”
It is prohibited to inform citizens about unauthorized meetings and rallies, disseminate information about uncoordinated events and publish correspondence with other users without their consent.
You cannot disseminate any information (text, photo, video) that promotes national and other intolerance, the use of alcohol and tobacco products, non-traditional sexual relationships, etc. - unless the message is accompanied by an “explicit condemnation of these materials.”
The explanatory note mentions the high-profile case of kindergarten teacher Evgenia Chudnovets. She reposted a video of a child being abused at a children's camp. After this, the perpetrators were punished. But the teacher herself was found guilty of distributing child pornography, although she made the repost to draw attention to the situation and find the criminals. The verdict against her was subsequently overturned.
One of the authors of the document, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region Vladimir Petrov, explained that the law should come into force on January 1, 2018. Social networks will have time to bring user agreements into compliance with it, remove those who are under 14 years old, and collect passport data from the rest in order to change account names if necessary.
- The situation is difficult now: social networks are multimillion-dollar virtual societies that influence the real life of the country. The relevance of the document is confirmed by recent high-profile events - from unauthorized political speeches to the terrorist threat,” explained Vladimir Petrov. - For the sake of public safety, it is necessary to introduce the principle of universal verification of users; this can only be done from the moment a citizen receives a passport - from the age of 14. No one is trying to impose censorship or limit freedom of speech. Verification and strict control over the authenticity of names will only increase the price of one’s own opinion and virtual communication.
No one is trying to impose censorship or limit freedom of speech. Verification and strict control over the authenticity of names will only increase the price of one’s own opinion and virtual communication.
In addition, the deputy suggested, linking an account to a passport will help solve the problem of manipulating public opinion online and will destroy all kinds of “communities of trolls” and pranksters. The explanatory note to the bill states that the publication of photographs and videos of the use of alcohol and illegal substances, “in the opinion of a teenager, makes him more authoritative in the eyes of others.” What consequences this can lead to is shown by the sensational case of Diana Shurygina, who suffered from her drunken peers. A similar trend is noticeable in Western social networks - their administrations are interested in protecting users from negative and harmful information. They strive to provide as much personal information as possible. I am sure that many countries will follow this path,” noted Vladimir Petrov.
Also mentioned are reports of teenagers who committed suicide after joining online communities. “Insufficient attention from parents, problems at school, unrequited love, fear of the future - force children to immerse themselves in the virtual world,” the document says.
“We must admit: the Internet has ceased to be a funny toy where people send funny pictures about cats,” State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov told Izvestia. - This is a virtual reflection of the state. Attackers often use the Internet and social networks for their own purposes - fortunately the soil allows it. The less irresponsible anonymity there is, the better - this area cannot be left to molesters, terrorists and criminals. If the document is submitted to the State Duma for consideration, then, I think, with a number of amendments and after extensive discussion with the industry, it has a high chance of being approved by the chamber.
Presidential Advisor German Klimenko said that the bill is still “extremely crude.”
- I’m not a lawyer, but the definition of a social network looks very vague and all resources with communication between registered visitors fall under it. But what to do with the unregistered? Registration under your own name without pseudonyms also raises many questions,” commented German Klimenko. - It seems to me that it would make sense to first discuss the bill with the industry. There are enough platforms with professional and legal competencies: Institute for Internet Development, Russian Association of Electronic Communications, Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies. Otherwise, we may get the effect of the “Yarovaya package,” when an information storm began due to inaccurately formulated requirements for traffic storage volume.
Representatives of Mail.ru Group (owns the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki) agree with German Klimenko. In their opinion, the initiative “at first glance is not sufficiently developed.”
“If the bill is submitted for discussion, we will have the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with it,” commented the Mail.ru Group press service.
Director of External Communications of Rambler & Co (owns the blog platform Livejournal) Matvey Alekseev said that there is no need for such a bill.
- Now everything is perfectly regulated. We have SORM (system of operational investigative measures in telecommunications. - Izvestia), we have Criminal and Civil Codes,” recalled Matvey Alekseev. - If the project becomes law, it will be a blow to domestic projects and social networks. At the same time, the document contains no restrictions on the use of foreign social networks and blogging platforms.
The adoption of the bill could hit business, says Matvey Alekseev. Many companies use social networks to promote products and services.
Another initiative from the bill is a complete ban on the use of social networks during working hours for public sector employees. The explanatory note states that social networks have “enslaved office workers”: the loss of working time is enormous, and employers cannot fight it.
MOSCOW, April 10 – RIA Novosti. State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov introduced a bill to parliament that concerns the work of social networks. Thus, the politician proposes registering new users with a passport, prohibiting Russians from using social networks during working hours, and also using public pages to organize uncoordinated actions.
On social networks using your passport
One of Milonov’s initiatives concerns the registration of new users on social networks. In particular, he proposes to oblige Russians to provide their passport information.
“During registration, the owner is obliged to request from the individual carrying out the registration in electronic form an identification document (including an identification document of a foreign citizen or a stateless person in the Russian Federation) and allowing to establish the last name, first name, patronymic (if available) and the age of the specified individual,” says the explanatory note to the document.
Milonov also proposes to oblige Russians to register on social networks only under their real name and surname. In his opinion, it is also necessary to prohibit a person from creating multiple accounts.
The bill stipulates that it will be possible to use social networks only from 14 years of age.
“The owner has the right to establish additional age restrictions for registering individuals on a social network,” the document clarifies.
Milonov paid special attention to public pages marked “18+”. He proposes to fine parents whose children under 18 years of age join such communities.
If the bill is adopted, parents will have to pay a fine of one and a half to two thousand rubles.
Not for work
Another proposal that Milonov submitted to parliament would regulate the use of social networks during working hours. The deputy is confident that employers should have the right to prohibit their employees from surfing the Internet.
If the law is adopted, corresponding amendments will be made to Article 57 of the Labor Code - “Content of the employment contract”.
About rallies
Milonov asked to “freeze” the accounts of deceased people on social networksOnly the relatives of the deceased should be given the right to manage the account, says Vitaly Milonov, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. He sent an appeal to Roskomnadzor with a request to limit the functionality of such accounts.Milonov's initiatives have already been commented on in the Kremlin. According to Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, the proposals will be difficult to implement in practice.
“We have not seen the essence of this bill, but only read in the media those provisions that it may contain, which we are not sure about. Those provisions that are discussed in the media, of course, are unrealistic, so it is unlikely that there is any need to take any position here “this position,” Peskov noted to journalists who were interested in whether the deputy’s initiatives could violate “constitutional human rights to access information and protection of personal data.”
Sarkis Darbinyan
Lawyer of the public organization Roskomsvoboda, managing partner of the Center for Digital Rights.
What's happened?
State Duma deputies will discuss the bill soon On amendments to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”., providing for amendments to the law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”. The main changes concern the operation of social networks.
The main points are:
- Social networks must have their own representative office in Russia. And if they don’t have it, then create it.
- Social network operators must necessarily identify their users.
- Within 24 hours, the social network must delete, at the request of users, information for the dissemination of which is subject to criminal or administrative liability. For example, promoting war, inciting national hatred and enmity, inauthentic and discrediting honor, dignity and reputation. This list is open. Considering the current unpredictable practice, it is impossible to say unequivocally what exactly these grounds will be.
- Social network operators are also responsible for removing fake news at the request of Roskomnadzor.
How will the new bill change the work of social networks?
Social network operators will be assigned the function of a court. The company will have to hire thousands of moderators and lawyers. They will have to deal with the issues of assessing the content and studying evidence of its illegality, claims, and so on. This is very serious work.
To minimize the risk, Russian services and social networks will most likely delete any suspicious information. This will increase the level of self-censorship within the platforms themselves.
How will all this affect users?
In recent years, a large number of users have already been prosecuted not only for their own entries, but also for.
Any publications on sensitive topics (religion, LGBT, Ukraine, Syria) may lead to the initiation of a criminal or administrative case. As was the case, for example, with the demonstration of Nazi symbols in the background of grandfather’s war photos or the expressive posts of the late blogger Nosik.
Who will be affected by the new rules?
Primarily on Russian platforms. The law will affect both YouTube and any major media outlets where commenting is possible. But it is Russian companies that will be forced to fulfill all, even the most absurd demands. They will be less competitive and attractive to users.
As a result, this may lead to many foreign social networks and services closing their operations in Russia. Ensuring activities in accordance with Russian law can be more expensive than the company’s profit from operating in Runet.
One of the requirements for social networks is to know your users. How will this be done technically?
For example, using mandatory registration from a mobile phone. From June 1, mobile operators will most likely begin to disconnect unidentified SIM card users. This is another step in the announced government policy to de-anonymize all Internet users.
How can you fight fake news?
There is no specific authority in the bill that could determine whether or not. Powers are spread across various executive authorities. They will apparently determine the reliability of information according to their own internal and often opaque procedures.
What will this look like in practice? For example, if the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that 10 people died in a fire, no one can write more or less. Even if there is reason to doubt.
What punishment awaits the social network for violations?
The first sanction for violating the law is a fine of 50 million rubles. In the future, they face restriction of access to the service throughout the country - blocking at the level of telecom operators.
Are there similar laws abroad?
Germany recently passed a law obliging social networks to remove some information related to the justification of Nazism. But the requirements there are quite specific.
In general, the trend regarding the control of private communications exists in many countries. However, such a scope of regulation has never existed anywhere else. The new bill of our deputies showed that Russia is ahead of the rest in terms of destroying freedom on the Internet.
What will happen if the bill is finally passed?
Since, in my opinion, the bill violates human rights and freedoms provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and a number of international conventions, after it comes into force a large number of legal proceedings and disputes will be initiated. The issue will reach international authorities, which will have to evaluate the provisions of the law. But whether this will help is a big question.
In addition, from the point of view of respecting human rights to privacy in the digital age, the bill contradicts the new European data processing regulation GDPR. The provisions of the bill are in direct conflict with this directive. This means that Russian companies will be fined by the European regulator for violating the rules for processing the data of European citizens.
To summarize, this is a severe blow to freedom of speech and the freedom of dissemination of information.
What do other experts think?
It is also alarming that the only subject who can make a statement about the removal of some information will be another user. The social network operator needs to figure out whether he is really right or whether he just decided to joke or annoy someone in just 24 hours! How many people should a social network operator have on staff so that they can accept and process such a mass of applications? And there will be a lot of them: VKontakte has more than 95 million registered users, and there are more than two billion of them.
There are still more questions than answers. The law clearly does not correspond to reality. Fulfilling its requirements in practice will be either difficult or technically impossible.
At the beginning of 2017, the initiative of deputies of the Leningrad region regarding the law banning social networks for children was actively discussed. The draft was submitted to the State Duma for consideration on April 5, and it was assumed that it would come into force on January 1, 2018. However, its consideration was not developed and The law on social networks for children was rejected.
Although the law on social networks from the age of 14 was not widespread, it touched on an important topic for discussion. Many deputies spoke out against the project based on its unfinished state. The initiative itself to limit the access of children and adolescents to social networks received positive reviews.
A survey among the population also showed that two-thirds of parents are in favor of the adoption of this law. Among young people aged 18-25, the same number of respondents supported the initiative. Although there is an opinion that for them the law looks like protecting social networks from children.
- oblige owners of social networks to register users through a passport, which can only be obtained at the age of 14;
- do not allow teenagers aged 14 to 18 to register in groups that contain information prohibited for minors - the presence of obscene language greatly limits the use of social networks by minors;
- It is prohibited, including adults, to use social networks to organize rallies, marches and other unauthorized manifestations of social activity of the population, as well as to inform about them;
- a ban on creating more than one account; only real data must be entered;
- a ban on advertising of an occult-magical nature and smoking mixtures, as well as a ban on the sale of any goods to children through social networks.
The law banning social networks for children also affects adults. It was planned to introduce a ban on the use of social networks during working hours by employees of civil government services of the Russian Federation, as well as employees of budgetary organizations. That is, the project is aimed at limiting the use of social networks not only for children, but also for adults.
Despite the support for the general idea, against the bill The following objections were raised:
- there is no well-developed concept of a social network; according to the project, any site with registration and communication of users is interpreted as such;
- the law does not affect social networks of foreign origin - there is no point in introducing a ban when a child can switch to another network without restrictions;
- There are no regulations on how citizens of other states will use Russian social networks.
The opinion was expressed that such a ban would lead to nothing, only to discontent and the maintenance of the “shadow” Internet. The emphasis, according to experts, should be placed not on a ban, but on dialogue with children and adolescents.
Requirements for registering on a social network
- all users are allowed to have only one page;
- to create it, you need a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, which can be obtained from the age of 14;
- All entered data must be reliable; the creation of “fake” pages is not allowed.
The draft law assumed that if adopted before January 1, 2018, all social networks will weed out children under 14 years of age, and passport data will be collected from other users.
Rejection of a project from consideration does not make the initiative itself irrelevant. A similar law will most likely be adopted in the future, as soon as mechanisms for monitoring children’s activity on the Internet are developed that are capable of solving the assigned tasks in practice. In the meantime, the bill is considered crude and unfinished.
Punishment for violation
- for registering a user under 14 years of age, the owner of the social network is fined 100-300 thousand rubles;
- for entering incorrect data during registration or having more than one page, the user is fined 3-5 thousand;
- For registering a minor from 14 to 18 years old in communities prohibited for children, parents are fined 1.5-2 thousand.
The bill provided for administrative liability for violations of the new law. It is possible that certain provisions may lead to other forms of penalties in the future if such a law is adopted.
Experience of foreign countries
Attempts to limit children's access to social networks and the Internet have been made for quite some time. IN THE USA in 1996, an act was issued on the illegal placement of information of a deliberately offensive nature. The court decided to declare this law unconstitutional.
Two years later, they tried to protect children from harmful information with a new document limiting their access to harmful information. However, due to the lack of a mechanism for determining the user’s age, this law began to infringe on the rights of adults and was also declared unconstitutional.
As a result, in the United States there is only one law on information protection of minors. It requires schools and libraries to use special filters to prevent access to harmful content.
In the countries of the European Union There are no social media laws for children. Any initiatives to introduce restrictions are blocked as implying censorship. Responsibility for the content lies entirely with the providers.
The only country with existing laws in this area is Great Britain. In 2013, a filtering system was introduced for providers. When a user contacts, access to certain materials is limited. According to statistics, up to 40% of British families use such filters.
A similar system also operates in Turkey since 2011, but it applies to any information. Turkish authorities also have the right to block data without a court order.
This practice does not free the child from the influence of social networks. He can use a friend's phone or find other sources that do not have a filter. In Russia Currently only . The provisions of the law do not regulate the use of social networks by children; they only establish restrictions on the content offered. You can download the text of Federal Law 436.
