Russia Threatens To Block Access To Facebook, Google And Twitter Unless They Obey New Bloggers Law

from the getting-serious dept

Last year, Techdirt wrote about yet another of Russia's new laws aimed at taming the troublesome internet world. Its most striking feature was that bloggers with more than 3,000 visitors a day were required to register on a special list, and to abide by general mass media restrictions. We noted then that blogs located overseas were not covered by the new law. But according to this report in The Guardian, based on a story in Izvestia, it seems that the law is now being applied to foreign service providers too: Facebook, Google and Twitter are all being threatened with fines or even bans for non-compliance:

The [Russian communications agency's] deputy director, Maksim Ksenzov, had issued a warning to the three companies on 6 May, telling them they were in violation of the bloggers law because they had not provided requested data on the number of daily visitors to several users' pages, as well as information allowing the authorities to identify the owners of accounts with more than 3,000 daily visitors.

The companies are threatened with fines, but these are relatively modest: up to 300,000 roubles ($6,000) for the first offense. Subsequent infringements lead to bigger fines or a ban on the website for up to 30 days. As The Guardian points out:

If the companies did not take steps to delete from their sites "information containing calls to participate in mass rioting, extremist activities" or unsanctioned public events, the watchdog would "limit access to the information resource where that information is posted", Ksenzov warned.

The problem is that regional Internet service providers might not be able to provide much granularity when limiting access to these pages, leading to services from the companies concerned being blocked completely in those areas. As the Izvestia article explains, although the Russian authorities are very keen for the US companies to obey Russian law, and point out that they are simply following in the footsteps of the the European Commission, it's not clear how they could force compliance or collect any fines they imposed.

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Filed Under: blocks, blogger's law, filters, freedom of expression, intimidation, russia
Companies: facebook, google, twitter

369 Bloggers Have Registered Under Russia's New Blogger's Law

from the some-still-say-fuck dept

Last year, we wrote about Russia's ridiculous new law that requires bloggers/social media users with more than 3,000 visitors per day to register with the government. Recently, we noted that Intel had shut down its Russian forums and blogs because of that law. But who is registering? Global Voices has the details on the 369 blogs and social media accounts that have currently registered.

They also asked the Kremlin why anyone would want to register -- and were told that registering could help attract more advertising dollars. But then, my favorite bit:

When asked how he would evaluate the effectiveness of the blogger law, Zharov said he would weigh the extent to which it succeeds in improving the “quality” of Russian blogging, by which he meant lowering the amount “profanity, unverified information, and libel.”

Yeah, sure, it's all about reducing "profanity" and not about silencing criticism, right? Oh, and if reducing profanity is the goal, this seems to be doing fuck all in helping with that:

Three of the 369 blogs on Roskomnadzor’s registry contain the word “fuck” in their names. One of these three is the Vkontakte community “Fuckbet,” a sports analysis website that provides “access to the best sports tips in the Commonwealth of Independent States” (presumably as an aid to individuals betting on the games). Another of this trio is “Fuck_Humor,” a Vkontakte group that specializes in amusing memes. One of the community’s most recent posts features a joke about fellatio, depicting what looks to be semen on a young girl’s thigh.

Last year, we had also pointed out that Russian officials were threatening to block both Twitter and Facebook for not cooperating with the government's new registry plans. The Global Voices article notes that since Twitter is not cooperating at all on this registry effort, the Russian government has been reduced -- no joke -- to begging Russian Twitter users to post screenshots of their analytics page so the government can determine if they're getting too many visitors.

When it comes to Twitter accounts, Roskomnadzor seems to have relied similarly on volunteers, as the ten Twitter users who now appear on the blogger registry are mostly pro-Kremlin media figures (plus a few Internet celebrities).

In fact, Roskomnadzor’s desperation with Twitter led it last month to solicit bloggers directly, and rather embarrassingly, for “screenshots” of their analytics data, which Twitter has refused to provide to the Russian government.

It's still unclear what Russia is going to do with those who have chosen not to sign up for the registry, but this move is still concerning for supporters of free speech and the right to express yourself anonymously.

Filed Under: anonymity, blogger's law, free speech, profanity, registration, russia

Intel Turns Off Russian Forums, Blogs & Comments In Response To Russian Blogging Law

from the silence-all-of-you dept

Back in April of last year, we were among the first to report on a very dangerous new law in Russia targeting bloggers, requiring any blogger or social media user with more than 3,000 "visitors" a day to register their real name with the government. The idea, obviously, is to put a massive chill on free speech among popular bloggers and social media users -- making it clear that the government is tracking everything they do. Just recently we noted how various social media platforms were responding to Russian demands that they censor or take down accounts related to opposition politician Alexei Navalny, or other critics of the government.

But the blogger/social media law has now gone into effect, and it's having an impact in all sorts of places. For example, chip giant Intel has now announced that it is basically turning off all ways to contribute to its Russian Intel Developer Zone in order to comply with the law.

In order to be compiant with the Russian Internet Bloggers Law the following changes will be implemented to Russian Intel® Developer Zone community as of January 1st 2015:

• Blog post contributions will be disabled
• Forum contributions will be disabled
• All commenting will be turned off for russian content

While it's unlikely that those in power in Russia today think this is a very big deal, recognize that taking Russians out of forums and discussions concerning key technological developments could certainly come back to haunt Russian technology development. This also comes about a month after Google closed down its Russian engineering office, in response to a different regulatory shift: a "data handling law" that would require all information from Russian users be kept in Russia (making it more easily accessible by Russian officials and the intelligence community).

All of these moves may be designed to shore up the existing leadership's political power, but it seems like a fairly short-term strategy, given that the end result is likely to hold back technological expertise and talent at a time when staying on top of technology is so important.

Filed Under: anonymous, blogger's law, blogs, forum's, free speech, registration, russia
Companies: intel