The legislation punishes the internet research of content listed as “extremists” in relation to over 5,000 articles, which include books, works of art, LGBTQ material+ material and music. A law has in force in Russia on Monday (01/09) which has deliberately studied or obtained access to the material listed as “extremist” by the authorities, which includes books, works of art, content LGBTQ+ and even music albums.
More than 5,500 articles are on the list of official “extremist” content, including songs that praise Ukraine, blog posts for Rock Band sites Feminist Rock Riot and Putin.
In today’s Russia, they are also considered “extremists” which “promote the same relationships” or even posts on social media of opposition groups, that is, any type of research of authorities to be considered “dangerous”.
Russian digital business minister Maksut Shadayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin that “foreign platforms refuse to remove this material at the request of our regulation authority, Roskomnadzor. More than 20,000 of our orders are currently suspended”.
In the conversation at the end of July, just before Putin Sanisca the law, Shadayev explained that “in practice, the authorities should show that there was intention and that the user knew in advance that the material was extremist and recorded it. In this sense, ordinary users can be safe”. The law states that if the content appears in the search bar, but is not clicking, there should be no penalty.
VPNs are still allowed
It is estimated that about 40% of the population uses VPN connections to circumvent the internet blocks, which would mean that about 40% of citizens are potentially transgressors.
The president of Dumi of the Dumi information committee, Serguei Boyarsky, explained that Russia does not forbid VPN connections because “they can also help to evade the harmful blocks imposed by the policy of the sanctions against us. However, it was criminalized.
In the vote, in July, only two parliamentary groups opposed the legislation. The parliamentarian Boris Nadezhdin, who organized a protest against the bill, said that it was like “something outside of 1984” – a reference to George Orwell’s book on a super lacking state. “This law punishes the crimes of thought,” he criticized.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the authorities have added dozens of important citizens and fundamental organizations for the war on their list of trivial extremists and terrorists. These include popular writers, journalists and bloggers, including, for example, the writer Boris Akunin and the television conductor Alexander Nevzorov.
Meta, a company behind Facebook and Instagram, has been declared in March 2022 as a “terrorist” organization after announcing that it would allow the posts that support the murder of Russian soldiers on its platforms, which Russia considered “Russophobia”.
RC (AFP, OTS)
Source: Terra
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