Roskomnadzor proposes to control mobile applications / A. Gordeev / Vedomosti

Roskomnadzor considers it necessary to regulate mobile operating systems, mobile Internet and mobile applications, the head of the agency Alexander Zharov said at the Safe Internet Forum. "The growth in the use of mobile devices requires the development of uniform rules for the functioning of mobile operating systems. The same principles as Internet sites should be applied to mobile applications, with an adjustment for the technological solution," he said (here and below, quotes from Interfax).

Experts from the Media Communications Union (MCU) are already working on proposals to regulate mobile Internet services, says Roskomnadzor press secretary Vadim Ampelonsky. According to him, they plan to present their developments at the Big Media Communications Forum, which will be held on May 10, where representatives of government bodies with the right to initiate legislation will be present. "We are ready to provide the MCU with a platform to discuss approaches to regulating the mobile Internet in Russia," MCU President Sergei Petrov told Vedomosti. He declined to specify whether the union already has any proposals to regulate the mobile segment and whether the MCU is ready to present them in May.

So far, no legislative initiatives have been developed on this topic, but the issue of the need to regulate this area has been discussed for a long time, an official from the relevant department knows.

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Earlier, the ISS prepared a bill that would allow only those online cinemas owned by Russian legal entities and citizens to operate. These companies, the ISS believes, must notify Roskomnadzor, which will maintain a register of such services, about their work.

The mobile segment of the Internet is growing very quickly, and users leave a lot of personal information about themselves in mobile applications, which can later be used by international companies or cybercriminals, Zharov said. "The widespread use of mobile devices requires the formation of uniform rules for the use of mobile operating systems," Zharov emphasized. "And mobile applications should be approached [with requirements] as sites."

This is not the first time that the authorities have raised the issue of regulating the mobile segment of the Internet. At the end of last year, officials even prepared a bill in which they proposed equating mobile messengers to telecom operators, i.e. allowing them to work in Russia only under an agreement with telecom operators and after notifying Roskomnadzor of the start of their work. If a messenger works without a signed agreement, telecom operators must block its traffic, it said. However, the head of the Ministry of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov claimed that the ministry is not going to block messaging services en masse, and he explained the need to regulate them by security considerations. Roskomnadzor raised the issue of regulating mobile applications as part of the fight against piracy. In December last year, Zharov proposed blocking pirated resources on mobile devices and pirated content in app stores.

Applications can only be regulated by the owners of these resources themselves, by forcing them to remove illegal information using the law, Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev told Vedomosti. There are no technical ways to interfere with the operation of mobile applications and restrict their operation. "But regulating mobile applications and the mobile segment of the Internet is the same as regulating conversations in the kitchen of a separate home. This is censorship and a restriction of freedom of speech," he believes.

A representative of the Ministry of Communications did not respond to the request.

Applications will take control