Draft law on social networks. Milonov’s other ideas are not allowed on social networks without a passport: the bill is already in the State Duma

Sargis Darbinyan

Lawyer of the public organization Roskomsvoboda, managing partner of the Center for Digital Rights.

What happened?

State Duma deputies will discuss the bill in the near future On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”., providing for amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection". The main changes concern the work of social networks.

The main points are:

Social networks should have their representation on the territory of Russia. And if they don't, then create it.
Social media operators must necessarily identify their users.
Within a day, the social network must remove, at the request of users, information for the dissemination of which criminal or administrative liability is provided. For example, propagandizing war, inciting national hatred and enmity, unreliable and discrediting honor, dignity and reputation. This list is open. Given the current unpredictable practice, it is impossible to say unequivocally what exactly these grounds will be.
Also, social network operators are responsible for removing fake news at the request of Roskomnadzor.

How will the new bill change how social networks work?

The function of the court will be imposed on the operators of social networks. The company will have to hire thousands of moderators and lawyers. They will have to deal with the evaluation of content and the study of evidence of its illegality, claims and other things. This is very serious work.

To minimize the risk, Russian services and social networks will most likely delete any suspicious information. This will increase the level of self-censorship within the platforms themselves.

And how will all this affect users?

In recent years, a large number of users have already been prosecuted not only for their own records, but also for.

Any publications on sensitive topics (religion, LGBT, Ukraine, Syria) may lead to the initiation of a criminal or administrative case. As it was, for example, with the demonstration of Nazi symbols in the background of grandfather's military photos or the expressive posts of the late blogger Nosik.

Who will be hit by the new rules?

First of all, on Russian platforms. The law will affect both YouTube and any major media where commenting is possible. But precisely Russian companies will be forced to fulfill all, even the most absurd requirements. They will be less competitive and attractive to users.

As a result, this may lead to the fact that many foreign social networks and services will close their work in Russia. Ensuring activities in accordance with Russian law can be more expensive than the company's profit from working in Runet.

One of the requirements for social networks is to know your users. How will it be done technically?

For example, through mandatory registration with mobile phone. From June 1 operators cellular communication, most likely, will begin to disable unidentified SIM card users. This is another step in the announced state policy to deanonymize all Internet users.

How can you fight fake news?

There is no specific body in the bill that could determine whether or not. Powers are spread over different executive authorities. They, apparently, will determine the reliability of information according to their own internal and often non-transparent procedure.

What will it look like in reality? For example, if the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that 10 people died in a fire, no one can write more or less. Even if there is reason for doubt.

What punishment awaits the social network for violations?

The first sanction for breaking the law is a fine of 50 million rubles. In the future, they are threatened with restriction of access to the service throughout the country - blocking at the level of telecom operators.

Are there similar laws abroad?

Germany recently passed a law obliging social networks to remove some of the information relating to the justification of Nazism. But there requirements are quite specific.

In general, the trend regarding the control of private communications exists in many countries. However, such a scope of regulation has never been seen before. The new bill of our deputies showed that Russia is ahead of the rest in terms of destroying freedom on the Internet.

What happens if the bill is passed anyway?

Since, in my opinion, the bill violates the human rights and freedoms provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and a number of international conventions, after its entry into force a large number of litigations and disputes will be initiated. The issue will reach international instances, which will have to assess the provisions of the law. But whether it will help is a big question.

In addition, from the point of view of respecting human rights to privacy in the digital age, the bill is contrary to the new European data processing regulation GDPR. The bill's provisions are in direct conflict with this directive. This means that Russian companies will be fined by the European regulator for violating the rules for processing data of European citizens.

To sum up, this is the strongest blow to freedom of speech and freedom of dissemination of information.

What do other experts think?

It is also alarming that the only subject that can make a statement about the removal of some information will be another user. To figure out whether he is really right or just decided to joke or annoy someone, the operator of the social network needs in just a day! How many people should be in the staff of a social network operator so that they can accept and process such a mass of applications? And there will be a lot of them: VKontakte has more than 95 million registered users, and there are more than two billion of them.

So far there are more questions than answers. The law clearly does not correspond to reality. It will be either difficult or technically impossible to fulfill its requirements in practice.

MOSCOW, April 10 - RIA Novosti. State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov introduced a bill to the parliament that concerns the work social networks. So, the politician proposes to register new users with a passport, to ban Russians from using social networks during working hours, and also to use public pages to organize uncoordinated actions.

In social networks by passport

One of Milonov's initiatives concerns the registration of new users in social networks. In particular, he betrays to oblige Russians to provide their passport data.

"When registering, the owner is obliged to request from the individual registering in electronic form an identity document (including a document proving the identity of a foreign citizen or a stateless person in the Russian Federation) and allowing you to establish the last name, first name, patronymic (if any) and the age of the said individual," the explanatory note to the document says.

Milonov also proposes to oblige Russians to register in social networks only under their real name and surname. In his opinion, it is also necessary to prohibit a person from creating multiple accounts.

The bill provides that it will be possible to use social networks only from the age of 14.

"The owner has the right to set additional age limits for registering individuals in the social network," the document states.

Milonov paid special attention to publics labeled "18+". He proposes to fine parents whose children under the age of 18 join such communities.

If the bill is passed, parents will have to pay a fine in the amount of one and a half to two thousand rubles.

Not for work

Another proposal that Milonov submitted to the Parliament regulates the use of social networks during working hours. The deputy is sure that the employer should get the right to prohibit their employees from using the Internet.

If the law is adopted, then the corresponding amendments will be made to article 57 of the Labor Code - "Content of the employment contract."

About rallies

Milonov asked to "freeze" the accounts of deceased people in social networksOnly the relatives of the deceased should be given the right to manage the account, said Vitaly Milonov, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. He sent an appeal to Roskomnadzor with a request to limit the functionality of such accounts.

Milonov's initiatives have already been commented on in the Kremlin. According to the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, a number of proposals will be difficult to put into practice.

"We have not seen the essence of this bill, but only read in the media those provisions that may be contained in it, which we are not sure about. Those provisions that are discussed in the media are, of course, unrealistic, so it is hardly necessary to take any some position,” Peskov told reporters who were interested in whether the deputy’s initiatives could violate “constitutional human rights to access information and protect personal data.”

The Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region has developed a bill "On legal regulation activities of social networks. According to Izvestia, it involves a strict procedure for admitting and identifying users who will be required to create pages only under their real name. When registering, you will have to provide passport data. Children under the age of 14 will not be allowed to use social networks at all. Submission of the draft to the State Duma is scheduled for today, April 5.

According to the bill, only those who have reached the age of 14 can be users of the social network. When registering, the owner of the service is obliged to check the passport data of citizens. For violation of this rule, the site owner faces a fine of 100 to 300 thousand rubles. If the user did not report a change in data or deliberately provided false information, he faces a fine of 1 to 3 thousand rubles.

Also, according to the document, it is forbidden to inform citizens about unauthorized rallies and meetings. The dissemination of information about such events will also be banned. And also you can not publish correspondence with other users without their consent.

You can not distribute any information (text, photo, video) that promotes national and other intolerance, the use of alcohol and tobacco products, non-traditional sexual relations, and so on - if the message is not accompanied by a "clear condemnation of these materials," Izvestia continues.

One of the authors of the document, Vladimir Petrov, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region, explained that the law should come into force on January 1, 2018. Social networks will have time to bring user agreements into line with it, remove those who are not yet 14 years old, and collect passport data from the rest.

Now the situation is difficult: social networks are multimillion-dollar virtual societies that affect the real life of the country. The relevance of the document is confirmed by recent high-profile events - from unauthorized political speeches to terrorist threats. For the sake of public safety, it is necessary to introduce the principle of universal verification of users, this can only be done from the moment a citizen receives a passport - from the age of 14. No one is trying to introduce censorship or restrict freedom of speech. Verification and strict control over the authenticity of names will only increase the price of one's own opinion and virtual communication, - the deputy explained.

In addition, according to Vladimir Petrov, linking an account to a passport will help solve the problem of manipulating public opinion online and destroy all kinds of “communities of trolls” and pranksters.

The explanatory note to the bill states that the publication of photos and videos with the use of alcohol and illegal substances, "in the opinion of a teenager, makes him more authoritative in the eyes of others." The sensational case of Diana Shurygina, who suffered from her drunken peers, shows what consequences this can lead to.

There are also reports of teenagers committing suicide after joining online communities.

Admittedly, the Internet has already ceased to be a fun toy where people send funny pictures about cats. This is a virtual reflection of the state. Attackers often use the Internet and social networks for their own purposes - the good soil allows. The less irresponsible anonymity, the better - you can not give this area at the mercy of molesters, terrorists and criminals. If the document is submitted for consideration by the State Duma, then, I think, with a number of amendments and after extensive discussion with the industry, it has a high chance of approval by the chamber, State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov told Izvestia.

Presidential adviser German Klymenko said that the bill is still "extremely crude."

I am not a lawyer, but the definition of a social network looks very vague and all resources with communication between registered visitors fall under it. But what to do with the unregistered? Registering under your own name without pseudonyms also raises many questions. It seems to me that it would make sense to discuss the draft law with the industry in advance. There are enough platforms with professional and legal competencies: the Internet Development Institute, the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies. Otherwise, we can get the effect of the "Yarovaya package" when, due to inaccurately formulated requirements for the volume of traffic storage, an information storm began, - German Klimenko commented.

Director of external communications Rambler & Co (owns the Livejournal blog platform) Matvey Alekseev said that there is no need for such a bill.

Now everything is well regulated. We have SORM (a system of operational-search activities in telecommunications), we have the Criminal and Civil Codes. If the draft becomes law, it will be a blow to domestic projects and social networks. At the same time, the document does not contain restrictions on the use of foreign social networks and blog platforms, - said Matvey Alekseev.

The adoption of the bill may hit the business, he said. Many companies use social media to promote their products and services.

Resonant terrorist acts are not in vain. The Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region has developed and is already submitting to the State Duma a draft law on social networks. All social media users will be forced to provide their full personal details. And no anonymous and pseudonyms! The security forces of the regime should be able to instantly come to a blogger who violates the laws. For example, reporting on an uncoordinated action.

The Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region has developed a draft law "On the legal regulation of the activities of social networks." It involves a strict procedure for the admission and identification of users who will be required to create pages only under their real name. When registering, you will have to provide passport data. Children under the age of 14 will not be allowed to use social networks at all. Submission of the draft to the State Duma is scheduled for April 5.

According to the draft law “On the legal regulation of the activities of social networks and on amendments to certain legislative acts” (its text is at the disposal of Izvestia), only a person who has reached the age of 14 can be a user of a social network. When registering, the owner of the service is obliged to check the passport data of Russian and foreign citizens. For violation of this rule, the legal entity - the owner of the site faces a fine of 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles. If the user did not report a change in data or deliberately provided false information, he faces a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 rubles.

You can create only one page and only under your real name and surname, otherwise a fine will follow: the owner of the site - up to 300 thousand rubles, the user - up to 5 thousand. Users under the age of 18 are prohibited from joining communities where information prohibited for children is posted . Otherwise, parents will have to pay a fine of up to 2 thousand rubles. Selling any goods to minors through social networks will also be punishable by law. In addition, the document assumes a ban on advertising "of an occult-magical nature and smoking mixtures."

It is forbidden to inform citizens about unauthorized meetings and rallies, disseminate information about uncoordinated events and publish correspondence with other users without their consent.

It is forbidden to distribute any information (text, photo, video) promoting national and other intolerance, the use of alcohol and tobacco products, non-traditional sexual relations, etc. - if the message is not accompanied by a "clear condemnation of these materials"...

Now the situation is difficult: social networks are multimillion-dollar virtual societies that affect the real life of the country. The relevance of the document is confirmed by recent high-profile events - from unauthorized political speeches to a terrorist threat, - Vladimir Petrov explained. - For the sake of public safety, it is necessary to introduce the principle of universal verification of users, this can only be done from the moment a citizen receives a passport - from the age of 14. No one is trying to introduce censorship or restrict freedom of speech. Verification and strict control over the authenticity of names will only increase the price of your own opinion and virtual communication...

A similar trend is noticeable in Western social networks - their administrations are interested in protecting users from negative and harmful information. They strive to provide as much personal information as possible. I am sure that many countries will follow this path, - said Vladimir Petrov...

It must be admitted that the Internet has already ceased to be a funny toy where funny pictures about cats are sent, ”State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov told Izvestia. - This is a virtual reflection of the state. Attackers often use the Internet and social networks for their own purposes - the good soil allows. The less irresponsible anonymity, the better - you can not give this area at the mercy of molesters, terrorists and criminals. If the document is submitted for consideration by the State Duma, then, I think, with a number of amendments and after extensive discussion with the industry, it has a high chance of approval by the chamber ...

Another initiative from the bill is a complete ban on the use of social networks during working hours for public sector employees. The explanatory note states that social networks have “enslaved office workers”: the loss of working time is huge, and employers cannot fight it.

MOSCOW, April 10 - RIA Novosti. State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov submitted to the parliament a bill that concerns the work of social networks. So, the politician proposes to register new users with a passport, to ban Russians from using social networks during working hours, and also to use public pages to organize uncoordinated actions.