Russia Declares War On Bloggers With Sweeping New Censorship Law
By Lauren C. Williams
May 7, 2014 at 4:41 pm
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin approved a new Internet law Tuesday, further tightening the government’s stranglehold on free and open Web access. The so-called “bloggers law,” borrows from China’s censorship law and requires all Web-based writers with at least 3,000 daily page hits to register with the government. China’s benchmark is slightly more lenient, with a 5,000 page view limit or 500 shares for negative posts.
Russian bloggers, and even people with popular social media accounts, must now follow the same rules as mainstream news outlets: fact-checking and removing inaccurate information that’s posted. Bloggers also aren’t allowed to defame another person or group in their posts, and can’t obfuscate or hide facts to further an agenda. By grouping in everyday citizens who typically make up the blogosphere with journalists, the law gives the Russian government even more opportunity to curate what’s said on the Internet — and ostensibly determine what’s factual or defamatory. The move also puts even greater pressure on the already strained Russian media, which is already under strict government guidelines.
Over the past couple of years, Russia has increased its Internet censorship efforts, including passing online filtering protocols that let the government monitor all Web traffic. In a recent interview with former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, Putin hedged questions about whether Russia spies on its citizens online or otherwise ...
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/05/07/3435292/what-its-like-to-use-the-internet-in-russia/
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