Putin signed a law on the “landing” of Internet companies in Russia

The largest Internet companies will be required to open representative offices in Russia. For evading compliance with Russian laws, they will be subject to "coercive measures" - from anti-advertising in search results to complete blocking through the mechanisms of the "sovereign Internet".

On July 1, 2021, Vladimir Putin signed the law "On the Activities of Foreign Persons in the Internet Information and Telecommunication Network", obliging foreign Internet companies to open representative offices in Russia.

The bill was submitted to the Duma on May 21 by deputies Alexander Khinshtein, Sergei Boyarsky, Maxim Kudryavtsev, Anton Gorelkin and Senator Alexei Pushkov. On June 1, it was adopted in the first reading, on June 16 the second reading took place, and the next day - the third . The Federation Council approved the law on June 23.

According to the text of the signed law, "foreign entities" operating on the Internet in Russia will be considered foreign legal entities and individuals who own websites with daily traffic of more than 500,000 Russian users and meet one of the following conditions:

— information is disseminated on their websites in the state language of Russia or the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia;

— on their websites the advertising focused on Russians is placed;

— they process information about users from Russia;

— they receive funds from Russian individuals or legal entities.

In addition, such "foreign persons" will include foreign hosters working with Russians, advertising networks and foreign information dissemination organizers.

"Foreign persons" will have to open a form for sending applications from Russian citizens and organizations, register a personal account for interaction with Roskomnadzor and open a representative office in Russia. Roskomnadzor itself will include foreign resources in the list of "foreign persons" and exclude them from the list.

The law provides for a wide range of "measures to compel" "foreign persons" to comply with the law. It includes:

1) informing users of search engines that the site of a "foreign person" violates the law;

2) a ban on the distribution of advertisements of a "foreign person" in Russia;

3) a ban on the distribution of advertising on the site of a "foreign entity", including advertising of government agencies, local governments and legal entities engaged in public procurement;

4) limiting the transfer of funds to a "foreign person" and the acceptance of payments by Russian individuals and legal entities;

5) a ban on search results;

6) a ban on the collection and cross-border transfer of personal data;

7) partial restriction of access to the website of a "foreign person" under clause 5.1 of Art. 46 of the Law "On Communications" (using the mechanisms of the "sovereign Internet");

8) complete restriction of access.

These measures may be applied if the "foreign person":

— fails to fulfill the requirements for opening an appeal form, registering a personal account and opening a representative office (measures 1-4);

- will continue to refuse their implementation within a month (any measures);

— will not restrict access to sites subject to blocking in Russia (measures 1-6);

— will not store personal data of Russians on the territory of Russia (any measures);

- subject to sanctions for "censoring" the Russian media and citizens (any measures);

- will not provide information about advertising to Roskomnadzor (any measures);

as well as in other cases stipulated by federal laws.

We believe that the use of such extrajudicial restrictions, including blocking, in relation to the largest resources of the Internet, will lead to unreasonable and disproportionate restrictions on freedom of speech. The non-compliance of several Russian extrajudicial blocking mechanisms with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and their arbitrary application has already been repeatedly   drawn to the attention of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Sources

• Federal Law No. 236-FZ of 01.07.2021 "On the activities of foreign persons in the Internet information and telecommunication network on the territory of the Russian Federation" // Official Internet portal of legal information. 2021. July 1st.