What will happen to social networks after the adoption of the new law

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

The life hacker asked the experts what to expect from the new legislative initiative.

What happened?

State Duma deputies will discuss in the near future a bill providing for amendments to the law "On information, information technology and information protection." The main changes concern the work of social networks.

The highlights are:

1. Social networks must have their own representative office on the territory of Russia. And if not, then create it.
2. Social media operators must be sure to identify their users.
3. 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 defaming 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.
4. Also, the operators of social networks are responsible for removing fake news at the request of Roskomnadzor.

How will the new bill change the way social media work?

Operators of social networks will be imposed a court function. The company will have to hire thousands of moderators and lawyers. They will have to deal with the issues of evaluating content and examining evidence of its illegality, claims, and so on. This is a very serious job.

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

How will all this affect users?

The document completely destroys all anonymity in social networks, introduces universal certification of each user and creates measures for total control.

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

Any publications on sensitive topics (religion, LGBT, Ukraine, Syria) can lead to criminal or administrative proceedings. As was the case, 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 the new rules hit?

First of all, on Russian platforms. The law will affect both YouTube and any major media where commenting is possible. But it is Russian companies that will be forced to fulfill everything, even the most absurd requirements. They will be less competitive and less 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. Providing activities in accordance with Russian law may be more expensive than the company's profit from operating on the Runet.

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

For example, using mandatory registration from a mobile phone. From June 1, mobile operators are likely to start disconnecting unidentified SIM card users. This is another step in the announced state policy to de-anonymize all Internet users.

How can you deal with fake news?

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

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

What punishment awaits social networks for violations?

The first sanction for breaking the law is a fine of 50 million rubles. In the future, they are threatened with restricting 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 related to justifying Nazism. But the requirements there are quite specific.

In general, the trend regarding the control of private communications exists in many countries. However, such a scope of regulation has not been found anywhere else. The new bill of our deputies showed that Russia is ahead of the rest of the world in terms of destroying freedom on the Internet.

What will happen if the bill is still adopted?

Since, in my opinion, the draft law 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 court proceedings and disputes will be initiated. The question will reach international authorities, which will have to assess the provisions of the law. But whether this will help is a big question.

In addition, from the point of view of respecting the human rights to privacy in the digital age, the draft law contradicts the new European data processing regulation GDPR. The provisions of the bill come into 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 summarize, this is a severe blow to freedom of speech and the freedom to disseminate information.

What do other experts think?

Anastasia Loktionova Deputy General Director of the Rusmicrofinance Group of Companies.

The only advantage of this bill, if it is implemented, will be some clarity about what to remove and what not. It may be easier to understand violations. On the whole, this reminds of a return to the XX century: censorship among the masses, and does not smell like freedom of speech.

Gleb Plesovskikh Advocate.

The provisions of the bill apply to social networks, in which more than two million users are registered. However, there is no clarification: users in general or those who are registered on the territory of Russia? And if a user has several pages, how will they be counted?

It is also alarming that the only subject who can make a statement about the removal of some information will be another user. To figure out whether he is really right or decided to just joke or annoy someone, the operator of the social network needs just a day! How many people should be on 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: more than 95 million users are registered on VKontakte, there are more than two billion of them on Facebook.

So far there are more questions than answers. The law is clearly not in line with reality. In practice, it will be either difficult or technically impossible to fulfill its requirements.