Russians will be fined for disrespecting the authorities and reposting fake news

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The State Duma adopted two laws in the third and final reading, which will make one behave more prudently on the Internet.

Disrespectful Authority Law

What is the point

The deputies supported the normative act, according to which publications that are disrespectful to:

• society;
• the state;
• official state symbols of the country;
• The Constitution of the Russian Federation;
• state authorities.

It is also prohibited to publish information that offends human dignity and public morality.

If offensive content is found, the Prosecutor General or his deputies will have to contact Roskomnadzor. The department is obliged to figure out the owner of the site and send him a notification in two languages (Russian and English) about the need to remove the publication.

A day is given to remove illegal content. Otherwise, access to the site will be blocked until the request is fulfilled.

How and who will be punished

For the publication of a post in which they find disrespect for the authorities, a fine of 30-100 thousand rubles is provided, for a repeated violation within a year - a fine of 100-200 thousand or administrative arrest for up to 15 days. For the third and subsequent posts, you will have to pay a fine of 200-300 rubles or serve an administrative arrest.

In the Code of Administrative Offenses, disrespect for the authorities is equated to petty hooliganism.

Fake News Blocking Law

What is the point

The new regulation prohibits the publication and dissemination of false information. We are talking not only about news, but about any fake data that is presented under the guise of real and can harm the life and health of people, the operation of infrastructure, and create a threat of disruption of mass order.

Probably, if you write that the asteroid will crash into the Earth in 2 hours, and people in panic will start hitting shop windows and leaving their jobs, you will fall under the influence of this law.

First of all, we are talking about registered online media. But news aggregators have been removed from the law.

There are no specific signs of public danger of false information in the law. The decision will be made "based on the news agenda and the nature of events."

If a socially dangerous fake news is discovered, Roskomnadzor will send a notification to the editorial office of the media with a request to remove it. The order must be executed immediately, according to the law. Otherwise, the site will be blocked.

How and who will be punished

The punishment is provided not only for the publication, but also for the dissemination of fake information, so it is not necessary to be a media outlet to be held accountable.

It is assumed that it will be impossible to punish a fake repost just like that.

The police will first have to prove that you posted the misinformation with intent and not just bought into it. But how this norm will be implemented - only practice will show.

The severity of the punishment depends on the consequences. For the first time, an individual will be fined 30-100 thousand rubles for disinformation, an official - 60-200 thousand, a legal entity - 200-500 thousand. But only if it created a threat to the life and health of citizens, could turn into mass riots or disrupt the operation of life support facilities.

If false information actually entailed problems with the functioning of large infrastructure facilities, the fines will already amount to 100-300 thousand rubles for an individual, 300-600 thousand for an official and from 500 thousand to 1 million for a legal entity. And for fakes, because of which people died and suffered, you will have to pay a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles.