The Lower Chamber of the Russian Parliament (State Duma) approved a bill on Tuesday, according to which They will threaten the Russians for fines for searching for “extremist” content on the Internet, informs TASR. Reuters to the approved law wrote that it was Stretch censorship in Russia and will also be limited by the so -called. Digital privacy.
The bill in question criticized opposition activists, But some Provilators. In accordance with it could be granted for the above -mentioned proceedings fines up to 5000 rubles (EUR 55), which, however, would, according to critics, open the way to more potentially stricter sanctions.
As Reuters recalls, the list of so -called. The extremist entities of the Russian Ministry of Justice currently has over 500 pages. The institutions whose operation in Russia is forbidden to their alleged extremist activity belongs to Fund of Fighting Corruption founded by a poor critic of the Kremlin Alexei Navalny, “International LGBT movement“Or American Technology giant META Platforms.
The new legislation focuses on people who consciously seek alleged extremist materials on the Internet, even through virtual private networks (VPN), What millions of Russians are using to circumvent censorship. “This bill concerns this a very narrow group of people seeking extremist content, Because they themselves have only a step of extremism, ”said Sergei Bojarsky, chairman of the Duma Committee on Information Technology.
Russian Digital Development Minister Maxut Sadajev He added that the law enforcement authorities will have to prove that users intended to display extremist materials, and the approach to individual platforms will not be penalized. However, immediately It is not clear how the authorities will prove that there was a concrete intention behind the search on the Internet. Even representatives of several pro -government offices have criticized the legislation, for example, described it as too “scare“.
The proposal has been discussed in the Russian Parliament for a long time, and to enter into force, It must also be approved by the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament, Federation Council.
Opposition politician Boris Nadeždinwho unsuccessfully tried to register as a candidate for the Russian presidential election last year, organized on Tuesday before Duma Protest against legislation and announced that it will continue with such events. He pointed to a surprisingly high number of deputies who voted against the bill in the Lower Parliament, which is not the usual phenomenon. Reuters recalls that 68 percent of deputies voted for the proposal, while 14.9 percent were opposed to them.
