Experts explain how Russia’s social-media self-censorship law will work

From 1 February in Russia, the law came into force, obliging social networks to independently identify and block illegal content.

Under the document, social networks are defined as online resources that allow users to create personal profiles and attract a daily audience of more than 500,000 users from the Russian Federation. They will be included in Roskomnadzor’s new registry.

They are to monitor the following content:

• materials featuring pornographic images of minors;
• information on how to manufacture and where to obtain drugs;
• calls to commit suicide or information on how to do so;
• advertising for remote sale of alcohol and online casinos;
• incitement of minors to engage in unlawful acts;
• insults to human dignity and public morals expressed in an \”indecent\” form, as well as \”open disrespect\” toward state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation or government authorities.
• calls for mass unrest.

They must also suppress disclosure of state secrets, calls for terrorism or its justification, materials that \”propagate a cult of violence and brutality\” and \”contain obscene language\”.

If a social network cannot independently decide to block, it must refer to Roskomnadzor and restrict access to the disputed information.

Social networks must bring their rules of operation into conformity with the new law within two months of being included in Roskomnadzor’s registry.

As stated by the head of the Safe Internet League, Ekaterina Mizulina, whose organisation has lobbied this law for several years, the document introduces a mechanism of self-censorship for social networks:

«Now they are obliged to curb the spread of information prohibited on the territory of Russia. We believe this will protect social-network users, especially children, from a huge amount of destructive information».

The Safe Internet League has already proposed Roskomnadzor include nine platforms in the registry. Among them are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram and WhatsApp.

Experts call the requirement to moderate obscene language in social networks \“at least controversial\.”

A member of the Commission on Legal Provision of the Digital Economy of the Moscow branch of the Russian Lawyers’ Association, Boris Yedidin, noted that using profanity as insults is one thing — it is already prohibited, but in some cases swearing forms part of artistic works — what to do in this case the law does not explain.

«There is no definition of \”information, expressed in an indecent form\” in Russian law (the phrase itself says a lot). No one understands why this had to be included» — said Mikhail Tretyak, the partner at the Digital Rights Center of ForkLog.

The penalties for refusing to delete prohibited content for social networks range from 800,000 to 4 million rubles. On a repeated violation the amount increases. Fines are provided for under another law, \\\”On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation\\”, which came into force on 10 January.

How and by whom exactly the monitoring of prohibited content should be carried out, according to the lawmakers, remains unclear, experts say.

«There are no penalties for omissions in monitoring by social networks. At the same time, Article 13.41 of the Administrative Offences Code provides sanctions for failure to remove unlawful content» — stated on the State Duma website.

Incentives to comply with Russian law for foreign social networks may come not only from fines.

Recently, President Vladimir Putin ordered the development of additional requirements for foreign tech firms operating in Russia. Among them are obligations to open representative offices in Russia. These requirements should be developed by 1 August.

The State Duma’s Committee on Information Policy said they are already drafting the corresponding bill.

«I suspect the mechanism will be as follows — either opening representative offices with full responsibility under Russian law, or a full and merciless ban, or traffic slowdowns» — said Mikhail Tretyak.

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G** l**t**h a**d**a**t**.

The head of the Information Policy Committee, Alexander Khinshtein, who co-authored the law that has come into force, said it is not punitive in nature and offers a clear, transparent mechanism for interaction between the social-network owner and Roskomnadzor.

«We all rely on the social network’s own awareness, since it proposes voluntary removal of clearly illegal content and provides its exhaustive list» —

Experts stress that social networks have long implemented a \”self-censorship mechanism\”. Mikhail Tretyak noted that all the major networks \”have long been a self-regulating entity: they have long identified and moderated such content in most countries, including Russia, with moderation occurring both manually and automatically.\”

«They have long been identifying and moderating such content themselves in most countries around the world, including Russia, with moderation existing both manually and automatically».

The problem, he said, lies more in the presence of local Russian-language moderators and in tuning automated systems to the Russian-language segment.

In his words, some provisions of the law are \”quite funny\” — for example, the requirement for \”free and unhindered\” access to the terms of use or the contents of the terms, since these networks have long published this information:

«Perhaps they are aimed at some networks that may appear in the future — in the public domain and for free».

Russian formulations are notorious for their vagueness, said ForkLog’s executive director Mikhail Klimarev.

«I am sure that even those who wrote this law do not understand it» — he added.

Overall, ForkLog’s experts say that Russia is not unique in seeking to regulate social networks — it is a global trend. This is especially evident given recent high-profile blockages — for example, account of former U.S. President Donald Trump on Twitter and Facebook (though the latter had previously refused to censor content under public pressure).

Facebook under scrutiny: how centralized networks press for censorship

At the same time, Russia is increasingly moving to distance itself from the global network.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin stated that Russia will not follow foreign schemes for regulating the Internet and protecting personal data, and days later Deputy Security Council head Dmitry Medvedev spoke about the possible disconnection of Russia from the global Internet. He said that the consequences would be mitigated by the so-called law on the Sovereign Runet.

The law is designed to ensure the stable operation of the Russian segment of the Internet in the event of disconnection from the global network or coordinated attacks. It entered into force in 2019, and in 2020 a bill was submitted to the State Duma “§ On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation” for penalties for its violation.

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