Translated material
The attack on messengers began?
The struggle between communication operators and Internet mixers reached a new level: telecommunications giants prepare a bill in order for instant messages to conclude agreements with them, and services are equated with subscribers
The introduction of mandatory identification for users of messengers is said in the draft amendments to the Law “On Communications”, prepared by the media-communications union (ISS). The ISS founded the largest Russian telecom operators and media companies in 2014. The organization represents the interests of communications operators, copyright holders, broadcasters, large sails-haushs, is indicated on the website of the ISS. Among the members of the Union are MTS, Megafon, Vimpelcom, Rostelecom, National Media Group, STS Media, Gazprom-Media and others.
The deputy head of the Ministry of Communications Alexei Volin said that he was not familiar with the project of operators. The Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov stated on March 1 that “a“ some specific bill ”for state regulation of the work of messengers still does not exist. The representative of Roskomnadzor Vadim Ampelonsky refused to comment.
The bill proposes to amend the Law “On Communications”, according to which operators will be required to disconnect messengers at the request of the “authorized federal executive body received under the interaction system”. It is assumed that amendments can enter into force on January 1, 2017. Up to this point, the messenger is obliged to file a notification of his work or the beginning of activity to the executive body - Roskomnadzor.
The most popular messengers in Russia include Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, as well as social networks that allow you to exchange messages - Odnoklassniki, VKontakte and Facebook Messenger, RBC previously reported with reference to J'Son & Partners Consulting. Her experts conducted a survey in June 2015. In our country, almost 60% of smartphone owners use mobile messengers, which is 50-60 million people, said Vitaly Solonin, head of the J'Son & Partners Consulting wireless technology department.
Another picture of popular messengers was shown by TNS data. In the first place was the WhatsApp messenger with a share of 27.9%, then Viber with 26.1%, then Skype with 15.9%, Facebook Messenger with 5.7%and Hangout (belongs to Google) from 3.9%(survey was conducted among residents of cities with a population of 700 thousand people from 12 to 12 to 12 to 12 to 12 to 12 to 12 to 12 to 12 64 years in June 2015).
Messenger owners may be obliged to “tie” an account to the mobile phone number, says Solonin from J'Son & Partners Consulting. Some of them are already doing this, he continues, for example, WhatsApp and Viber. And the user can install Skype on his mobile, indicating only the email address.
The legislative initiative of communication operators cannot but bother, since the events of recent months can be traced in the tendency to grade oxygen to independent means of communications. Thus, representatives of the Public Chamber and the pro -presidential youth organization "Young Guard" United Russia "(Mger) called for the Prosecutor General and Roskomnadzor to check Telegram. The head of the Fund for the Study of Democracy, the Deputy Chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber to harmonize interethnic and inter -religious relations, Maxim Grigoryev saw in it "the spread of ISIS propaganda channels (terrorist organization prohibited in Russia)." According to him, recipes for the manufacture of explosives, diversion work benefits are freely distributed in the messenger, while Telegram leaders to prevent the spread of this information refuses.
A similar request - only to Roskomnadzor - sent Mger Kirill Grinchenko, noting that recently about 200 accounts have been recorded with social networks, which have been promoting the activities of terrorist organizations. Experts believe that if social networks want to work in Russia, then they will do everything possible to stop propaganda from terrorists. Grinchenko himself comments on this:
“Our fund has repeatedly identified terrorist channels in Telegram. They not only propaganda terrorism, but also apply instructions for the manufacture of explosives, manuals for conducting sabotage work. ”
Earlier, the head of the Fund for the Research of Democracy Problems sent the VKontakte social network, where the fund recorded about 100 videos with extremist materials.
A similar appeal, according to the interlocutor of Izvestia from Mger, the other day was sent to Roskomnadzor.
At the end of last year, the first deputy head of the Constitutional Committee of the State Duma, Alexander Ageev, asked the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov to consider the possibility of restricting Russian users access to the Telegram messenger if information about the use of this application from ISIS is confirmed.
On his VKontakte page, Pavel Durov then reacted with a joke:
“I propose to ban the words. There is information that terrorists communicate with their help. ”
Experts explain that if Telegram does not take measures, then under Russian legislation, after checking the Prosecutor General’s Office, the messenger may be blocked by Roskomnadzor. According to the law in the register of sites with prohibited information, the supervisory authority makes a direct link (URL), domain name or IP address of the site.
The founder of 4Talk Sergey Kravtsov explained that the messenger does not have such a thing as the URL, so Roskomnadzor will have to block all the IP addresses on which Telegram works, if Pavel Durov refuses to remove illegal channels. The head of the Ministry of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov then did not find anything illegal in Telegram:
“Telegram today does not violate the legislation of the Russian Federation, as far as I know. If someone knows the facts of violations, then they need to be sent to the relevant authorities. The rhetoric about the prohibitions should not be artificially planted. We are in contact with Pavel Durov. ”
Telegram independence problems arise not only in our country. The main legal adviser of Apple Bruce Sewell during the hearing in the Congress about the dispute of the manufacturer iPhone and the FBI said that even if his company would allow special services to break user phones, there would be an “absolutely incorrect” application (though having confused its name several times):
“One of the most addictions that we saw among the terrorists used is something called Telegraph. Telegraph can be on any phone, it is in no way connected with Apple, it can be downloaded via the Internet and from the outside [USA]. And this is an absolutely inconsistent communication method. If Apple is forced to create a new operating system to reduce the safety of smartphones belonging to dozens or hundreds of millions of innocent people, this will hit our safety, but will not affect the terrorists. ”
In general, messengers in many regions of our country have become a much greater phenomenon than just a resource for messaging. Sometimes they turn into a kind of social networks, where users share the last news, create groups, send various kinds of content, ask for help, etc. - We already wrote about this in one of our recent publications. And the desire to somehow influence their work is not the first time for the authorities.
Read on the topic of the article:
State Duma deputy asks the FSB to block Telegram for Russian users
Communication Minister: Telegram does not violate the laws of Russia
_____