Roskomnadzor has published explanations of some provisions of the law "on news aggregators"

Roskomnadzor has published on its website explanations of some provisions of the law “on news aggregators”.

The law was adopted by the State Duma in June of this year in the last, third reading. According to its text, news aggregators are responsible for the accuracy of the information they disseminate.

The most serious controversy was caused by the fact that now, according to the new law, companies owning news aggregators, for example, Yandex, with its Yandex.News project, are responsible for the accuracy of information posted on third-party resources. In fact, the lawmakers initially obliged large technology companies to filter the news issue and check the texts for accuracy.

Understanding that neither Yandex, nor any other major player in this field, Google, physically provide for filtering and checking the content of dozens of media, publications and resources, Roskomnadzor published explanations for the law “on news aggregators”.
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According to the text of the document:

The owner of the news aggregator is not responsible for the dissemination of news information if it is verbatim reproduction of messages and materials or their fragments disseminated by the mass media, which can be established and held accountable for violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation on mass media.

The document also stresses that:

Roskomnadzor will not take responsibility for the owners of news aggregators in case of dissemination of unreliable socially important information, as well as other information disseminated in violation of the law, obtained from:

• registered media sites;
• official websites of the state authorities of the Russian Federation, state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local governments created in accordance with the Federal Law of 09.02.2009 No. 8- “On ensuring access to information about the activities of state bodies and local governments”;
• official sites of state and municipal enterprises, institutions, other organizations with state participation, created on the basis of federal laws.

With these explanations, Roskomnadzor expressly indicates that the entire responsibility for the false information received by the news aggregator will be borne by the source of this information, provided that it is subject to identification. Also, the department’s explanations can be viewed as a veiled signal to allow only materials of state origin or registered information distributors / registered media to be issued.