"Leave the network alone!"

About 800 people took part in the march "For Free Internet", which took place on Sunday in Moscow. The authorized action ended without incident. Participants in the procession passed from passionate boulevard to Academician Sakharov Street. The main requirements of the organizers of the action are to cancel censorship on the Internet, to rehabilitate the persons involved in criminal cases for reposts and likes, as well as resign the head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov.

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A request to the city hall was submitted by a party of folk freedom, a “democratic choice”, a party on December 5, the Pirate Party of Russia, the Libertarian Party and the Roskomsvobod movement. On July 16, a similar action took place in St. Petersburg.

One of its organizers, member of the Council of the Moscow Regional Branch, Parnas Emil Khalikov, spoke about the goals of the action in an interview with Radio.

- How did the desire to spend such a march? There were an infinite number of prerequisites - from the "Laws of Yarovaya" to date, to the locks of anonymizers, VPN locks . All this was brewing, brewing, and in the end resulted in the conflict of Alexander Zharov and Pavel Durov , which gave us the opportunity to spend such a march.

- What are the basic requirements?

- The cancellation of the "Package of Yarovo", the abolition of the law on blocking anonymizers and VPN, rehabilitation of all convicts in cases for likes and posts, free Internet and relevant micro -scrotics. Of course, the most important requirement is the resignation of Alexander Zharov, the head of Roskomnadzor.

- From your point of view, what threatens such a policy of the authorities in the field of the Internet, what is it due to their part? How can this affect ordinary users?

We will see full chaos on the Internet when ordinary citizens will receive criminal cases

- We perfectly see civil society today. The prohibitive policy has been systematically pursued by a huge number of years. We see about the same scenario in the work of the authorities with the Internet. Prohibiting laws, prohibitive decisions and powers of Roskomnadzor and, in principle, the "Internet power" will increase, the snow lump will increase. We will see full chaos on the Internet, when ordinary citizens, ordinary Internet users will receive both criminal cases and Internet resources will be blocked. This is unacceptable, ”says Emil Khalikov.

Leading lawyer of the RoskomSvoboda organization, head of the Center for Protection of Digital Rights , Sarkis Darbenyan, in an interview with Radio, Liberty discusses why the topic of free Internet has become a reason for street protest:

-Ordinary Internet users are tired of the number of crazy laws that are adopted at some incredible speed. We know that today several more rather controversial bills are torpedoed into the Duma: the law on the prohibition of anonymity of messengers, the Law on the ban on the VPN. All this, of course, complicates life to users. This really creates problems for the connectedness of the Russian Internet segment, for the availability of services. I think this is the reason why many citizens really want to go out and openly declare their position against such mediocre Internet regulation that will not bring any benefit to anyone.

A rally against the "Package of Yarova" in Moscow, August 2016

- Explaining the need for these laws, our deputies talk about security, that terrorist attacks are organized through the Internet , etc. From your point of view, how viable these arguments are?

- This, of course, is absolute nonsense. We saw the attacks of all federal channels on Telegram messenger. Telegram was called almost an official application of terrorists, they said that this is why the correspondence should be controlled. And Durov must present all the information, including on the "Spring Package", encryption keys, correspondence of correspondence. But this has nothing to do with common sense, because if you block Telegram, it is clear that terrorists can create their own messenger, which is basically inexpensive. Thousands of other instant messengers who are not popular in Russia can use, nevertheless, they provide a high level of security and “priest” users. Therefore, this, of course, is the fight against technology. The protection of children and the fight against terrorism is waved as a flag when they talk about the need to take some strict repressive measures. However, unfortunately, these laws will not interfere with terrorists. But they will create a huge number of problems for both users and business, which is trying to do at least something so that Russia retains positions in the global digital market to create high-quality working products.

Protection of children and the fight against terrorism waves like a flag when they talk about the need to take some hard repressive measures

- Are there any real technical opportunities to ban everything on the Internet, as our deputies try to do - to ban anonymizers, ban specific messengers, and prohibit anonymity?

- Naturally, it is possible to do this 100%, because the Internet was originally created so that the communications remain in any case. Technical solutions progress, do not stand still. New algorithms are created in which it is more difficult and more difficult to block traffic and the Internet. Moreover, most of the traffic is encrypted. And how to decrypt it, our special services do not know at all. There are examples of China, there are examples of Turkmenistan and even Türkiye, where the platforms are completely turned off during some high-profile actions. Naturally, you can create problems for users, the work of some services will be difficult, but not completely stopped. However, this, of course, requires a huge infusion of funds into modern equipment, including Chinese equipment, which can determine, for example, VPN traffic, can determine different types of network traffic and mock these signals, block service servers and, accordingly, all IP-addresses.

This is a feeder in which certain faces want to enrich themselves

Here, of course, we come to the question of corruption. Obviously, the adoption of all laws is not just a desire to harm Russian users. This is a feeding trough in which certain persons want to enrich themselves, who, of course, will import this equipment into Russia and, under the guise of certified, force the communication operators at their own expense to purchase expensive equipment. Undoubtedly, all this will ultimately fall on the pocket of the consumers themselves. Already now it is clear that with the "Yarovaya Package" soon we can lose unlimited Internet packages. Because operators now need to consider money. All this is the reason for such a wide discontent of users throughout the country.

Promotion against the "Package of Yarovaya" in Moscow, August 2016

- Does this mean that the authorities are simply afraid of what is happening on the Internet, and does not understand how it functions?

- The fact that there is an obvious misunderstanding of the operation of the network is a fact. If it were, then such ill -conceived initiatives would not be implemented. Is the power of the network afraid? Most likely, the authorities understand that at one time they lost the opportunity to win the audience on the network, because they mainly invested in federal channels. And what is happening now on social networks, the success of some opposition politicians, some activists, shows that the network has great force. Therefore, the authorities want to control communications. That is why we saw the emergence of a law on news aggregators. Now it is a law on the organizers of the dissemination of information on which responsibility is entrusted to delete any content at the request of the authorities. This creates a large field for censorship, which we see now, it seems to me, almost daily.

The authorities understand that at one time they lost the opportunity to win the audience on the network

- If we talk about the march "For Free Internet", what are your plans, what are the requirements?

- I think that representatives from various political parties will gather, basically it is all persons who share the ideology of the freedom of dissemination of information, the state’s non -interference in the operation of the network, and supporters of self -organization. I think that the main slogan of the entire event will be the requirement to remove paws from the Internet and leave the network alone. Naturally, there will be other slogans, there will be supporters of Dmitry Bogatov. This is a case with the illegal detention and detention for three months of the owner of the output unit TOR, software, just ensuring the safety of users and the state -leveling censorship of the state. Supporters are going to support Dmitry. There will be Libertarians, there will be “pirates”, there will be various civilian activists - the whole audience that is on protecting the digital rights of users, ”concludes Sarkis Darbenyan .

On July 21, State Duma deputies adopted in the third , final reading the laws on regulating the work of messengers and on the ban on the means of bypassing the site blocking.

The law on messengers obliges the administration of services to establish the identity of users (by phone number). The document also prescribes the opportunity to limit access to the messenger on the basis of a decision of the authorized authority or court. The procedure for blocking together with market participants will have to develop a government in the future. The document will enter into force on January 1, 2018.

The law on the ban on bypassing of locks provides for the blocking of anonymizers and VPN. If these services refuse to stop access to the information banned in Russia, they themselves are blocking. To identify such anonymizers will be the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The law will enter into force on November 1, 2017. In addition, the bill abolishes the register of bloggers, which has been operating in Russia since 2014.

Now the documents must be approved by the Federation Council and signed by the President.