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London, Nov 1 (ANI)

A new law in Russia that aims to protect children from harmful internet content by allowing the government to remove such websites has finally taken effect in the country.

The law was approved by both houses of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin in July.

According to the BBC, the authorities are now able to blacklist and force offline certain websites without a trial.

The authorities have claimed that the goal is to protect minors from websites featuring sexual abuse of children, offering details about how to commit suicide, encouraging users to take drugs and sites that solicit children for pornography.

Human rights groups have, however, said the legislation might increase censorship in the country.

According to the report, they call it another attempt by Putin to exercise control over the population.

"Of course there are websites that should not be accessible to children, but I don't think it will be limited to that," Yuri Vdovin, vice-president of Citizens' Watch, a human rights organisation based in Saint-Petersburg, said..

"The government will start closing other sites - any democracy-oriented sites are at risk of being taken offline. It will be [an attack on] the freedom of speech on the internet," Vdovin added.

--ANI

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Censorship fears loom as Russian law allowing 'Internet blacklisting' takes effect

Wednesday, the Russian parliament unanimously adopted a controversial bill that would give them a tremendous amount of control over the Internet. Not so ironically, Wednesday was also October 31stHalloweenthe day of the year that the horrors, specters, and ghouls walk the land (in costume) and in this fashion, Russia managed to costume up SOPA and bring it to their people.

A multitude of open-interest websites banded together to warn against this bill and its potential for becoming a tool of censorshipamid those sites included Yandex, LiveJournal, Mail.ru, and the Russian-language Wikipedia.

Not just echoes of censorshipactual blatant secret censorship

According to the BBC, the bill would create an Internet blacklist, which would not be made public (meaning that the Russian public wouldnt even know what was being banned or why.)

If the websites themselves cannot be shut down, internet service providers (ISPs) and web hosting companies can be forced to block access to the offending material.

The list of banned website will be managed by Roskomnadzor (Russias Federal Service for Supervision in Telecommunications, Information Technology and Mass Communications). It is meant to be updated daily, but its contents are not available to the general public.

Of course, this has drawn the attention of critics who dont like the idea of web censorship, and are even less enthusiastic about the bills portion that keeps the lists hidden from the public. Not only have numerous websites come out against it, but so have human rights organizations who see the obvious gateway to abuse.

Its less about thinking of the children and more about shaming critics

As The Guardian UK explains, the bill was pushed through on the back of one of the modern day political hot-button issues that are so often used to divest people of safety and privacy: the protection of children. Much like how terrorism is used to bypass thoughtful and rational discourse on cybersecurity bills. To this extent the phrase think of the children, is often used to disparage politicians forwarding controversial or flawed bills to control speech. Apparently, Russia is no stranger to this effect.

The need to fight child pornography and illegal content are as important for civil society as the support of constitutional principles like freedom of speech and access [to] information, Yelena Kolmanovskaya, the chief editor of Yandex, wrote in a statement posted on the website on Wednesday. However, she added: The proposed methods provide a means for possible abuse and raise numerous questions from the side of users and representatives of internet companies.

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Forget SOPA, Russia Activates Web Censorship Blacklist Law

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