Fight off evil

They want to add extremism, alcohol and other negative phenomena to the list of banned sites.

On November 11, two initiatives appeared at once aimed at expanding the scope of the register of prohibited sites - to resources with extremist propaganda and sites selling alcohol. TJournal recalled what else they proposed putting resources on the “black list” for.

Porn, drugs, suicide

November 1 marked one year since the register of banned sites began operating in Russia. Initially, the law provided for three categories of prohibited information, for the placement (and refusal to delete) of which resources would be blocked and blocked at the level of Internet providers: child pornography, suicide propaganda and instructions for the manufacture, purchase or use of drugs.

Each of these categories is dealt with by a separate department: the Federal Drug Control Service on drugs, Rospotrebnadzor on suicide, and Roskomnadzor on child pornography. The latter organization also manages the registry itself, instructing providers to block or unblock a particular resource. Sometimes she even goes to the length of breaking the law, not allowing the blocking of Wikipedia, on which “related” departments found propaganda of drugs and suicide.

Over the course of the year, according to the specified criteria, in addition to Wikipedia, the “black list” included VKontakte, Lurkomorye, posts on LiveJournal, and videos on YouTube. All attempts to appeal departmental decisions in court have so far ended in failure.

Children affected by crime

In April 2013, a law came into force that introduced liability for the publication of information about minors who have suffered as a result of illegal actions. In addition to fines, the law provides for the inclusion in the register of prohibited sites of pages that disseminate personal information (for example, name or photographs) about child victims without permission. There were no reported cases of application of this provision.

Promotion of homosexuality

In the first half of 2013, Russia actively developed and adopted a law to combat the promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships among minors. Initially it was called (and in its meaning remained) the law banning gay propaganda.

According to the law, “denial of family values” only entails fines. However, Elena Mizulina, an active supporter of this law, stated at the initial stages of developing the rule that it was also necessary to include resources promoting homosexuality in the register of prohibited sites.

Freedom can be very dangerous for children. Exposing a child to pornography before a certain age can have unforeseen effects on their developing personality. The state must limit those freedoms that may violate the rights of the child. One of them is the right to free formation of personality. This means that no adult, no matter what sexual preferences he may have, should force them on a person under 18 years of age. A child, upon reaching adulthood, will be able to choose his own preferred mode of sexual behavior. Therefore, propaganda of homosexuality among children should be classified as information prohibited for dissemination on the territory of Russia. Elena Mizulina, deputy

This provision was not included in the final version of the bill, signed by the president.

Obscene language

In the summer of 2013, Elena Mizulina came up with a new initiative: to block any websites, forums and pages on social networks containing obscene language. She explained that she receives many requests from concerned citizens about this matter.

Parents are concerned that children may have the wrong stereotype that swearing is normal language, when in fact this is far from the case. Elena Mizulina, deputy

Mizulina even convened a round table with participants in the Internet industry, at which there were heated debates about whether it was possible to clean out obscenities from the Runet and how to do it. The continuation of the discussion was then postponed until the fall, but this issue was not returned to again.

Online casino

In July, the Moscow City Duma joined the potential expansion of the “black list”. United Russia deputy Irina Svyatenko proposed a bill that would allow online casinos to be included in the register. This was explained by the fact that now gambling sites cannot be closed, even if the casino organizer was brought to justice. In August, the Ministry of Internal Affairs came up with a similar initiative. The further fate of the bills is unknown.

Pirated materials

In April, the chairman of the Coordination Council for the Protection of Intellectual Property, Evgeny Sevastyanov, proposed that sites with pirated materials should also be included in the register of child pornography, suicide and drugs. At that time, different approaches to combating the illegal distribution of materials were actively discussed, and it was unclear which option the authorities would choose.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications called Sevastyanov’s proposal unacceptable. But in the end, a law was passed , which in fact introduced another “black list” on the RuNet from August 1 - now only with sites offering pirated films and TV series. It functions according to approximately the same mechanism as the first register, with one significant exception: all decisions on blocking resources are made by the Moscow City Court. At the same time, the procedure for blocking is pre-trial - the court only makes a decision on preliminary interim measures, after which the copyright holder has another two weeks to file a full-fledged claim.

Hentai

Japanese porn animation can be placed in a separate category. Live actors do not take part in hentai, but nevertheless, Roskomnadzor experts found child pornography in this genre. As a result, resources, under the threat of being blacklisted and subsequently blocked, were forced to clean up any hentai - even if there were no “minor” characters directly there.

It was because of hentai that one of the most famous porn sites in the world, Redtube, was included in the register of prohibited sites. The resource, which consists almost entirely of “adult” porn with live actors, is blocked by a number of providers due to a page with an animated video.

Extremism

It has been proposed more than once to block extremist sites by adding them to the register. Strictly speaking, the law initially provided for such a possibility: when a court recognizes a particular resource as extremist, it is enough to register its inclusion in the “black list” (by default, the register of prohibited sites is not synchronized with the list of extremist materials on the Ministry of Justice website).

However, as Kommersan reported on November 11, LDPR deputy Andrei Lugovoi introduced a bill to the State Duma proposing that pages with calls for mass unrest, extremist or terrorist activities, and participation in uncoordinated mass events be included in the register of banned sites.

Probably, Lugovoy’s initiative comes from criticism of the VKontakte administration, previously voiced by the head of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, against the backdrop of unrest in the Moscow district of Biryulyovo, in which citizens dissatisfied with the large number of migrants participated. Zhirinovsky noted that the management of the social network refuses to delete communities that incite ethnic hatred, citing freedom of speech.

Online trading of alcohol

Finally, on November 11, the governmentprepared a draft resolution according to which resources involved in the remote sale of alcohol should be included in the register of prohibited sites. The reason is simple: recently the number of sites remotely selling alcoholic beverages has sharply increased, and identifying and stopping such activity is technically difficult. Therefore, the government believes, it is enough to block the virtual “showcases” themselves.

Along with sites directly selling alcohol, it is proposed to block resources that tell you where you can buy alcohol remotely. The decision on adding alcohol sites to the “black list” will be made by Rosalkogolregulirovanie, and the resolution, as planned by the authors, should come into force in 2014.

Humor is also blocked, but that's a completely different story,
Sultan Suleymanov,
TJournal

#Article #copyright #Roskomnadzor #state regulation #Rospotrebnadzor #FSKN #Andrey_Lugovoi #Elena_Mizulina