Today, the State Duma adopted in the final third reading amendments to the law "On Information" and the Administrative Code, introducing sanctions for web resources for access to prohibited sites. They will apply to all proxy and VPN services, as well as anonymous networks such as Tor. Also in the third reading, the Duma approved the law on regulating the activities of electronic messaging services (messengers) and measures aimed at combating illegal SIM cards. All of these changes were adopted despite criticism from industry experts and business representatives.
Amendments by deputies Maxim Kudryavtsev (United Russia), Nikolai Ryzhak (Fair Russia) and Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) suggest that Roskomnadzor will create a list of tools to bypass the blocking of prohibited resources, identify their hosting providers and other persons who ensure their work. Providers who receive a notification from Roskomnadzor will be required to take action within 30 days or independently send to the department an application for connection to the register of prohibited sites and readiness to block the resources specified in it. If the service owners do not fulfill the requirement, they themselves face blocking. At the same time, the owners of programs, networks and services who use them for clients with whom they are in labor relations will not fall under the sanctions.
The mechanism for restricting access to information resources based on decisions of Roskomnadzor is being introduced in order to prevent the onset of harmful consequences from the use of "blocking bypass means" and does not exclude the possibility of subsequent appeal against such decisions in court. At the same time, it will not Roskomnadzor, but the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to identify the anonymizers.
Search engines are also required to apply to connect to the registry of blocked sites within 30 days at the request of the agency. Having connected to the registry, the search engine is obliged to stop issuing links to prohibited sites and their pages at the request of users on the territory of the Russian Federation. Failure to comply with this obligation will face a fine for citizens in the amount of 5 thousand rubles, for officials - 50 thousand rubles, for legal entities - 500-700 thousand rubles.
The amended law was passed despite criticism from representatives of the Internet industry and business, who considered such regulation excessive and indicated a violation of the rights of citizens enshrined in the Constitution. “Given the rapid development of the Internet and the services associated with it, it is impossible to understand what exactly falls under the definition of the draft law,” Rambler & Co. emphasized. “Even if a link to a resource is in the search results, this does not mean that the user, following the link, will be able to access the resource if the resource has been blocked by a telecom operator or otherwise,” Yandex pointed out. The law comes into force on November 1, 2017.
Also today, the deputies in the third reading adopted a law banning the anonymous use of instant messengers - it will enter into force on January 1, 2018. Its authors Marina Mukabenova (United Russia), Oleg Nikolayev (Fair Russia) and Aleksandra Yushchenko (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) suggested that the owners of messengers enter into agreements with telecom operators - this would allow the user to be identified by the phone number. In addition, messengers will have to restrict the sending of messages at the request of government authorities. The procedure for such a restriction must be determined by the government.
These amendments have also been criticized: in May, the Russian Association for Electronic Communications indicated that the proposed changes were redundant and could be implemented within the framework of current legislation. The association also noted that the definition of "messenger" used in the draft law may include any sites with the possibility of correspondence.
Another innovation was the adoption by the deputies of amendments that toughen the fight against illegal SIM cards. Now individuals will not be able to pay bills for mobile communicationprovided by SIM cards issued for legal entities without providing their own personal data. In turn, the operators cellular communication got the opportunity to check information about subscribers using a unified identification and authentication system, a unified portal of public services and other systems of government agencies.
In Russia, at the legislative level, the issue of blocking Runet access to Tor and other anonymous servers is being considered. Such an answer was given by the FSB to a letter from the leader of the Bounty Hunters movement, Sergei Zhuk, in which he asked to block the Tor network (one of the ways to establish an anonymous connection on the Internet, protected from eavesdropping. - Izvestia) because of the large number child pornography.
The Federal Security Service told Zhuk that crimes against public health and public morality are within the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and recommended that they establish cooperation with the Safe Internet League in order to block sites with child pornography. However, A. Lyutikov, deputy chief of the FSB unit, who signed the letter, noted that Tor is also used by attackers to sell weapons, drugs, counterfeit credit cards etc.
"Currently, the issue of the need to block access from the Russian segment of the Internet to Tor servers and other anonymous (proxy) servers is being considered at the legislative level," Lyutikov writes.
According to a Izvestia source familiar with the situation, such legislative initiatives are being prepared on behalf of the FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov personally. He announced them at a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC). These issues should be worked out jointly with the departments concerned in the framework of measures to counter terrorism.
For some reason, it is generally accepted that Undernet (an anonymous part of the global network. - Izvestia) is safe, and thanks to this illusion, it is possible to catch and imprison criminals, ”says the source. “The danger is that if it is closed, it will have to develop new methods to control and search for criminals in the new network, which will undoubtedly appear soon after the closure of the current one.
According to Sergei Zhuk, there is no need to close Tor, it is necessary to force the administration of this project to cooperate.
I myself use their browser and love it very much, but when it comes to child porn, and Tor contains its largest planetary archives, I’m not only ready to donate my favorite browser, but even my favorite finger on my left hand, explains Zhuk. - If Undernet is closed, then it will not be my fault, not the FSB or the State Duma, but only the stubborn owners of Tor. I am a peacemaker, not an invader.
Denis Davydov, director of the League of Safe Internet, told Izvestia that this organization supports the idea of \u200b\u200bblocking the anonymous Internet for Russia. But, judging by his words, not in the near future.
Undernet is a meeting place for pedophiles, perverts, drug dealers and other freaks. First, you need to find them all, catch and plant, and then you can close the network, - says Davydov.
According to State Duma Deputy Ilya Kostunov, the problem is extremely important, but before preparing a legislative ban on such services, it is necessary to check the technical feasibility and expediency of this.
It is necessary to understand what consequences the blocking of Tor or anonymizers can lead to, - says the deputy. - For example, will it turn off important services for people in well-known social networks or network games. Will there be mechanisms to bypass the lock.
The problem, he said, is that Tor "is based on the root infrastructure of the Internet."
As far as I know, Tor cannot be blocked, - adds Kostunov. - It quickly reconfigures to other nodes and starts working again.
Proxies are very important for the functioning of the Internet. They help to balance the load on resources, bypass "problem" areas of the Network and quickly restore communication in case of unstable work. A huge number of companies, Apple, Opera and many others, use them to speed up their services, ”warns Matvey Alekseev, executive director of the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Internet Technologies and Infrastructure.
According to Alekseev, in this matter it is necessary to be careful in the wording, assessment criteria, and examination methods. To work on the initiative, you need to involve industry experts who will be able to assess real threats and propose adequate methods for solving the problem. Otherwise, the initiative can have unpredictable consequences.
As in real life, there is a shadow part on the web, says State Duma deputy Robert Schlegel. - If crimes are committed on the shadow side, it is necessary to deal with it as with organized crime. If it is necessary to stop crime, then changes must be made. The main thing is that this does not interfere with the functioning of the regular Internet.
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Vladimir Putin signed a decree “On the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in Russian Federation for 2017-2030 ". The decree approves the corresponding program (PDF), which contains a number of resolutions on the regulation of the Internet in Russia.
In particular, the strategy provides for measures to exclude the anonymity of Internet users, their "irresponsibility and impunity." It is supposed to create a system that "guarantees the privacy and security of users." How such a system will work, how anonymity will be prohibited and the authenticity of users will be verified, and how anonymous users will be punished, is not specified.
The program also provides for the improvement of mechanisms legislative regulation services "similar to media" - these are called "sites on the network", social networks, messenger, Internet TV and news aggregators. Again, it is not said how exactly to improve these mechanisms. However, it can be assumed that not in last we will talk about attempts to legislatively prohibit the use of anonymizers, the TOR network and similar services.
In addition, the document spells out “the priorities of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values \u200b\u200band the implementation of the norms of behavior based on these values \u200b\u200bwhen using information technologies"," Replacement of foreign equipment and software on the russian counterparts"," Regulation of the import of foreign information technologies "," work against the use of the Internet for military purposes "," development of the humanitarian significance of the Internet "and a long series of ambiguous statements without explaining ways of implementation and.
Over the past ten years, the Russian authorities have waged a consistent legislative attack on the Internet: as a model to emulate, they took the Chinese version of the Internet, which, as you know, is completely under the control of the government and is completely isolated from the outside world. One of the main milestones on this path was the infamous "187-FZ", a law passed in 2013 and at one time dubbed "Law Against the Internet", after which the "rabid printer" continued to churn out one law against freedom of speech after another: in particular, the Duma members adopted the draconian acts "374-FZ" and "375-FZ", which received an unofficial name as "Yarovaya laws", or "Yarovaya package". Meanwhile, in most countries in the post-Soviet space, the authorities also censor the worldwide network - for example, in Turkmenistan, cyberspace is organized according to the North Korean principle: only a few resources are available to users, with information approved by the government. Popular social networks such as Facebook are blocked in Kazakhstan. The Internet is doing relatively well in Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine, although even here, recently, voices about the need to censor the Internet have been increasingly heard. But users from Uzbekistan, neighboring with Kyrgyzstan, have to resort to the help of anonymizers or the TOR network to access a number of resources. Recently, an increasing number of Russians have to master this method of Internet surfing. Among other things, the dream of banning Russians from using TOR has long been cherished by Russian lawmakers. However, it remains unclear to what extent this encroachment will turn out to be successful if adopted by the legislators, so according to the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty, in Belarus, where means of anonymity on the Internet have been legally prohibited since February 2015, and since December 2016, the country's authorities
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017–2030. The document was published on the legal information portal (the strategy is available in pdf format).
The priority in the use of information and communication technologies is considered "traditional Russian spiritual and moral values" and the observance of the "norms of behavior" based on them, the document says. The strategy is also aimed at creating a “national digital economy"And" ensuring national interests ", and the main principles are" ensuring the rights of citizens to access information "," ensuring freedom of choice "when receiving data, as well as" maintaining traditional and customary (as opposed to digital) forms of obtaining goods for Russians and services ".
Within six months, the government will have to support traditional media and resolve the situation with similar services. In this case it comes about news aggregators, social networks, Internet TV, instant messengers, as well as “sites on the Internet”. According to the decree, such measures are necessary to "create an information space in Russia that takes into account the needs of citizens and society in obtaining high-quality and reliable information."
The document talks about the need to ensure the use of Russian encryption tools in the electronic interaction of federal authorities, replacement of imported equipment, software and electronic component base with domestic counterparts, as well as providing comprehensive protection information infrastructure RF, in particular, using the state system for detecting, preventing and eliminating the consequences of attacks on information resources.
In addition, the strategy provides that cooperation russian organizations with foreign companies in the digital economy is possible under a number of conditions. In particular, when Russian and foreign organizations interact, all data must be stored in databases and processed on servers located in Russia, and payments must be made through Russian payment systems. The provision of financial services by foreign enterprises on the territory of Russia is not allowed.
Another provision of the strategy relates to anonymity on the Internet. According to the document, a certain system of trust should be developed in Runet, which "guarantees the confidentiality and personal safety of users, the confidentiality of their information and excludes anonymity, irresponsibility of users, impunity for violators on the Internet."
Finally, the document talks about the need to ensure the formation of a national electronic library and other state systems, which include objects of the historical, scientific and cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation. In addition, it is necessary "to create conditions for the popularization of Russian culture and science abroad, including to counteract attempts to distort and falsify historical and other facts."
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree against online anonymity and on the settlement of services similar to media. This follows from the "Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030", published on the website of the head of state, Lenta.ru reports.
The text of the document proposes to take measures to exclude the anonymity of network users and their "irresponsibility and impunity." It is also planned to create a special system that guarantees "personal safety of users, confidentiality of their information."
In addition, within six months, the government will have to support traditional media and regulate services similar to them. In this case, we are talking about news aggregators, social networks, Internet TV, instant messengers, as well as “sites on the Internet”. According to the decree, such measures are necessary to "create an information space in Russia that takes into account the needs of citizens and society in obtaining high-quality and reliable information."
It is noted that by October 1, 2017, officials must develop a number of measures that will allow government bodies Go to russian funds encryption, as well as create a system for protecting Russian infrastructure from cyber attacks.
It is not yet clear how the presidential decree will be implemented in practice. In our republic, as well as throughout the Russian Internet, anonymous publics on social networks are very popular.
However, anonymous messages on the Web have repeatedly led to loud scandals... For example, a year ago a conflict broke out between the director of the tUday.ru website, Alexei Togoshiev, and the communist deputy Fyodor Buraev. The reason was the publication, under which someone left anonymous comments with insults at Togoshiev. During the inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it turned out that they were sent from Buraev's home computer. It was calculated by its IP address. Then it came to direct threats and a public showdown. As a result, the journalist summoned the deputy to the ring for a "duel". But Fyodor Buraev did not support this initiative. The mayor of Ulan-Ude, Aleksandr Golkov, even became involved in a scandal with anonymous comments.
