Russian lawmakers are not abandoning the idea of streamlining the information field on the Internet. The greatest concern of the deputies is that so far many citizens are uncontrolled and anonymously registered on the forums and on social networks, declining responsibility when spreading harmful information.
A year ago, the deputies attempted to
introduce registration in social networks on the passport . That
bill was developed by deputy V.V. Milonov. The bill provided for the introduction of fines from 1,000 to 3,000 rubles for users who did not indicate the real passport details during registration. For social networks that allowed this, the penalty should have been from 100 thousand to 300 thousand. In addition, it was proposed to prohibit the registration in social networks to users up to 14 years.
Milonov’s passport registration bill did not even reach a vote, because the State Duma’s Legal Department
returned the draft for revision “to fulfill the requirements of the Constitution of the Russian Federation” . Therefore, now the deputies
offer another, more realistic option : link accounts to a phone number (SIM-card), as is done in many messengers and in accordance with the recently introduced
draft law on de-anonymization of users in Belarus .
This option also allows you to easily identify the identity of each user, and technically it is much easier to implement.
A proposal was made by the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Information Policy Committee Andrei Svintsov: “It is clear that social networks require regulation. Those citizens who use them to promote their business or themselves, as well as engage in advertising, will only be happy if their activity in social networks is protected, ”Svintsov said in a
commentary to the Parliamentary Newspaper.
Svintsov's proposal will be considered on April 9, 2018 at an expanded meeting of the Committee on Information Policy, dedicated to the regulation of social networks and ensuring the rights of their users.
The deputy is sure that the users themselves will accept the proposal for de-anonymization, because, among other things, it increases their security: “Neither hackers nor the owners of social networks will be able to hack accounts,” explained the author of the idea. He said that fraudsters often register on social networks under other names, including making fake accounts on behalf of famous people - politicians, show business stars, etc. The same problem on dating sites, added Deputy Svintsov.
“We, together with the professional community, need to take steps to stop such behavior,” Svintsov said. “It's time to treat social networks as a serious business.”
Coincidentally, a similar bill on the deanonymization of users in social networks and forums last week was presented in the union Belarus. There, the bill is presented in the form of amendments to the law "On Mass Media". According to the
draft , it is planned to introduce the following changes in legislation:
- voluntary registration of Internet resources as media;
- in case of failure to register, Internet resources will not be able to apply to government bodies and other organizations for the accreditation of their correspondents;
- Mandatory identification of individuals posting materials or comments on forums, in Internet resources (not only in online publications) ;
- in fact, there is a mandatory moderation of Internet resources (since in the case of non-compliance with extremely vague restrictions, it is possible to apply sanctions up to blocking);
- allowed the possibility of blocking social networks.
The Minister of Information of the Republic of Belarus later
explained that users will still be able to post comments under pseudonyms, but “if there is a question of responsibility, then the resource in which they spoke is obliged to report and indicate who is the author of this or that comment or wider material” . The minister also added that “the introduction of such a bill is one more step towards the unification of legislation within the Eurasian space”.
The lower house of the Belarusian parliament may consider relevant amendments to the law
at a session on April 19, 2018 .
Lawmakers in Russia and Belarus often learn from each other’s experience, so it’s not surprising if similar rules appear in the Russian draft law.
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