Mediaboss Marketing

July 12, 2012

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

The Russian parliament yesterday unanimously decided to adopt a bill which allows them to exercise a greater control over the Internet. Now, many Russians are worried this is just the first step to widespread censorship by the Russian government.

Only one man stands between this bill and the law: Russias president, Vladimir Putin.

Similar to the Internet protests which occurred when the U.S. Government voted on bills SOPA and PIPA, some Russian websitessuch as search engine Yandex, LiveJournal, and the Russian version of Wikipediaused their sites as a platform to speak out against the new bill. The Russian Wikipedia, for example, went black once more in protest, warning visitors the bill could lead to the creation of a Russian analogue to Chinas great firewall.

The bills authors say the new measures would help crack down on offensive and troublesome sites, such as sites which feature child-pornography or sites which promote drug use and suicide. Should Putin sign this bill into law, the Russian Government would create a sort of federal blacklist for any site which is found to be outside of the regulations. The owners and operators of these blacklisted sites would be forced to take down and remove these sites.

Though this bill was unanimously passed through the Duma, Russias Parliament, the calls of the protestors may have been heard after all. For instance, according to the Guardian, MPs sought out and removed any vague language which could have been used to immediately shut down any site with the ambiguously defined bad content. The Duma instead opted to use more specific language, shutting down sites which contain child pornography, drug use or suicide. Any other site with questionable content would require a court-order before being placed on the blacklist and subsequently removed. If these websites cannot be taken down, the ISPs and hosting companies responsible for the site will be forced to take it down on their end.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev backed the law as he spoke to Radio Free Europe.

Peoples basic rights and freedoms must be upheld, including the right to information on the one hand and the right to be protected against harmful content on the other hand.

Those who oppose Putin have long feared that such a crackdown on the Internet could happen and now worry that this bill will be the final stop in between Putin and censorship.

More:
Will New Bill Bring Internet Censorship In Russia?