Triple punch for Runet: user identification, site control and electronic payments

If terrorism did not exist, it would be worthwhile to invent it only in order to enact relevant laws tightening control over citizens' communications on the Internet and build a system of total control over Russian sites.



This post is not devoted to analyzing the domestic policy of the Russian authorities, not criticizing well-known politicians and not describing the current regime, but in order to analyze the package of new bills that will directly affect users, owners of electronic resources, and the entire IT industry. The topic has already been started by fStrange in his post , but he touched only electronic payments, without affecting other rather important aspects of the proposed package of draft laws.

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The elected representatives, who were very unfriendly to Russian citizens, yesterday sent to the State Duma three whole bills, one way or another, strengthening the anti-terrorist tools of law enforcement and special services.





In principle, the Russian authorities did not invent anything new in the methods of implementing tough power domestic policies. But unlike the United States, in which after the events of September 11, the Patriot Act was adopted, which gave the government and the police broad powers to oversee citizens and the beginning of the state PRISM citizens spying program, our legislators went even further.



Compared to 2013, which was marked by the adoption of a whole pleiad of laws introducing censorship , and one way or another regulating the public relations of citizens in the network , 2014 began with even more aggressive legislation.



By tradition, the bill was submitted to the State Duma on behalf of the well-known Duma quartet: Spring (EdRo), Lugovoy (LDPR), Denisenko (CPRF) and Levin (CP). And the deputies Lebedev and Saraliyev trailer to them.



So what does the team of the former prosecutor’s employee, the FSB officer, the intelligence officer, the PR man, the son of Zhirinovsky and the Chechen politician offer us ?! And they offer us unprecedented amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses, to the current laws “On Communications”, “On Information”, “On Counteracting Legalization and Laundering Proceeds from Crime,” “On the National Payment System”, “On the FSB” and “On Counter-Terrorism”.







The first block of amendments extends the powers of the FSB to Shmon citizens and their cars if there are sufficient grounds to suspect them of committing a crime. The scope of the criminal act called “terrorism” is expanding, new qualifying signs of crime are being added (propaganda, justification and support of terrorism), and a new criterion of terrorist activity in the form of “destabilization of the activities of the authorities” appears. For habr community is not so interesting topic. The first block of amendments is more interesting for human rights activists, theoretical lawyers and practicing lawyers.



But the second and third block of bills, if adopted, can affect the future life of Runet and IT.



The second block is aimed at monitoring the network communications of citizens. And if a little earlier the Runet was agitated by the new Order of the Ministry of Communications , which obliged to keep records of user activity (phone numbers, IP addresses, account names and e-mail addresses of social network users) for at least 12 hours for subsequent transmission to special services, the authors The bill went even further. Hosting providers, site owners and other persons (including foreign resources), the circle of which will be determined by the government, will be obliged to store data on reception, transmission, delivery, processing of various electronic information ("information on reception, transmission, delivery and processing of voice information, written text, images, sounds, or any kind of actions taken by users in disseminating information and / or data exchange) within six months !!! Require the specified information will be entitled to law enforcement agencies under the OSA. How the procedure for storing information should take place (including for owners of any websites on Wordpress, Blogger, Wix and other services platforms) is not specified in the draft law, and it is obvious that a number of clarifying by-laws will be adopted soon in the Law.



In addition, all owners of sites that carry out activities “to organize information dissemination and / or data exchange between users on the Internet will be obliged to notify Roskomnadzor about the start of their activities. Presumably this will affect almost 100% of all resources located on the expanses of the Russian Internet.



The draft law also introduces amendments to the Law "On Communications" and lays the foundation for the Government to further define the procedure for the mandatory identification of Internet users. How will the mandatory identification of citizens on sites not yet disclosed, and this can only be guessed.



Of course, it was not done without new fines for non-compliance with the “innovation legislation”. From 3,000 to 5,000 rubles per citizen for failing to notify Roskomnadzor about the commencement of information dissemination and / or data exchange activities between users on the Internet, as well as for breach of the obligation to store data for 6 months and from 100,000 to 200,000 - for the lawyers.



The third block of amendments is devoted to electronic payments. The amount of non-personalized payments is limited, that is, payments made without customer identification, for example, through the Ya.Money, WebMoney services. According to the bill, the total amount of the transfer will not be able to exceed 1000 rubles per day and 15,000 per month. In addition, anonymous transfers of money from abroad, as well as the use of “anonymous” money that was issued outside of Russia or received from foreign organizations, are actually completely prohibited.



So, the proposed “anti-terrorism” amendments simultaneously address several important problems for the authorities:



1. strengthening the general powers of supervisory authorities, incl. FSB and Central Bank.



2. strengthening control over the network communications of citizens;



3. strengthening control over the financial transactions of citizens through electronic means of payment;



4. strengthening control over the activities of NPOs;



Soon, Russian sites (and foreign ones, of course, were also considered) and a new life awaits Russian users.



And so the Bitcoins will now become outlawed, Russian crowdfunding will slowly begin to die (neither of which you have more colta.ru and other independent journalistic projects), the source of funding for alternative fundraising of oppositionists for election campaigns will be silenced, humanitarian payments from abroad to help children will be stopped et al., and we all will be under a large round-the-clock cap of law enforcement.



At the same time, in the event that the Law is adopted, the cost of Internet access services, hosting and other network services is likely to increase. Of course, the financial and economic justification for the draft law does not imply any burden on the federal budget. And it is not even possible to calculate what financial burden this will have for the entire industry. Obviously, only that it will be a huge amount, which will have to be paid by hosters, providers and site owners to purchase new hardware, which will allow storing data for 6 months. How much will all this come out of the Russian IT industry and the citizens will be better informed by experts at Habré who are more knowledgeable about this.



And all this, as usual, for the sake of the most good deed - to protect us from you from international terrorism. Thanks friends! Now we really feel much more secure.



For some reason there is no doubt that the bill will fly with a whistle in the State Duma and by the spring we will receive new rules of the game on the network.



The only thing that remains to hope in these conditions is the concept of “tote of death” by Jim Bell, which can begin to gain momentum in Russia, as a symmetrical response of society to those who do not care about the fundamental rights of citizens and the development of the Russian IT industry. It can happen only when the “donors” put large bets on the individual inglorious demise of some deputies and officials, and finally, those who make such decisions and press the voting button will start thinking about their actions.



UPD: You can discuss these bills, as well as comment on the proposed amendments to the current legislation here .