Moscow – I depend Duma Council The Russian in its second reading of a session held on the 17th of this month, amendments that impose a fine on the search for “clearly extreme” materials on the Internet, as well as the use of programs to overcome the “VPN”.
After the third reading, it is scheduled to refer the amendments to consider them in the Federation Council, then it is submitted to the Russian President Vladimir Putin Liliore.
In the event that the document is approved, the new article of the “Administrative Violations Law” will enter into force on the first of September 2025.
The value of the supposed fines for citizens is from 38 to 62 dollars per violation. As for the promotion of programs that exceeded blocking, their violations are distributed as follows:
- For citizens from 625 to a thousand dollars.
- For officials up to $ 1875.
- Companies and institutions up to $ 6250.
According to the Federal Law “regarding the combat of extremist activity”, extremist materials include the following:
- Publications that call for extremist activities.
- Articles that justify violence, incitement to ethnic hatred, and destroy the constitutional system.
- Business and literature related to the German National Socialist Workers Party, and “the party Fascist The Italian, “in addition to the speeches and pictures of the leaders of the organizations that the Nuremberg Court ranked as” criminal “.
- The materials that justify or enhance national or ethnic superiority, as well as incite against ethnic, social or religious groups.
These publications are scheduled to be included in the “Federal List of Extreme Articles” supervised by the Ministry of Justice, which currently includes 5473 articles, including texts and audio and video materials.
Explanation
Indicate One of the amendments of the amendments The Russian Senator Artem Chicen, in his comments, indicates that the fine will only apply to the deliberate procedures by the user to reach prohibited content, which includes, for example, multiple searches for the same material or discussing prohibited content in chats and social networks.
According to him, random transfers, single clicks, or browsing doubtful pages will not be considered a violation, and illegal fines can be challenged, indicating that the use of the “VPN” blocking services itself is not considered a violation unless it is linked to access to prohibited locations and materials.
Promoting digital security
Legal expert Nikolai Marozov says that the new amendments aim to increase the efficiency of information space regulation and reduce the possibilities of overcoming the current ban on visiting some Internet resources and preventing the impact of “extremist” networks on users.
Marozov explained to Al -Jazeera Net that the punishment currently applied in Russia is to distribute extremist materials, which is the administrative responsibility with the imposition of a simple fine or administrative detention, in addition to the blocking procedures implemented by the Russian Communications Control Authority does not prevent the distribution of illegal materials.
He adds that these materials not only contain destructive ideas, but also may also include different types of instructions to prepare and implement “terrorist and sabotage attacks”.
According to his opinion, these amendments will become an additional tool in combating the distribution and use of banned materials, in addition to reducing the consequences of committing crimes, misdemeanors and terrorist acts.
The legal expert pointed out that citizens should not fear fines on the information that accidentally reaches their accounts through notable algorithms, nor will the responsibility not be imposed on the informal identification of prohibited content, but only if the user deliberately searches for extremist materials.
He continued that the devices can be confiscated to verify the searches only if there are good reasons for that, for example, to collect evidence for the court, as the suspects may be required to violate the law to hand over their devices.
Gaps and questions
For his part, sociologist Vladimir Kushil said that the amendments suffer from a list of gaps and deficiencies; The application of the amendments is impossible without violating the rights of citizens.
In an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, Kushil adds that the list of “extremist materials” is updated almost daily, so how can a person realize a change, wondering how he must know that changes or additions occur.
He said that if a person searches, for example, in the morning, about a book or information that was not at a moment considered extremist, then it became so at lunch, so how will he know in advance that this or that material is classified as extremist? It is not quite clear, he said.
In addition, the spokesman pointed out that the amendments complicate the work of journalists and researchers who may refer to extremist materials when writing their articles.
He states an example of this that when there are cases in which workers in the media study the personality of a criminal classified as an extremist, and for this purpose they see the materials published on his page on social media, does this mean that those who study extremists and terrorists have become from the point of view of the new amendments criminals?
Kushil asks: Will children be deceived if they see – by error – “extremist materials” in published posts, or wrote “PVN” in the search bar?
According to his opinion, a government decree must be issued to explain the mechanism of applying the law; The federal list of extremist materials at the present time includes 5473 materials, ranging from violent content that includes videos of migrant migrants, persons of different nationalities and other for foreign clients, pictures of ethnic excellence, drawings that carry a sw handing, and others. Do every citizen should see this list?