Supplementary orders of Roskomnadzor to the law “On news aggregators” entered into force

On Friday, February 3, Roskomnadzor published on its website orders to the law "On news aggregators", which entered into force today, February 6, 2017. Orders issued by the regulator are aimed at approving the form and order of the requirement to stop the dissemination by news aggregators of false or falsified information.

Orders formalize the relations of the regulator and aggregators and expand the capabilities of the agency to assess site traffic, as well as to make decisions about the removal of “inaccurate information” from public access.

In total, three documents were published and entered into force:

• Order of December 5, 2016 N 306 Moscow (PDF) “On approval of the functioning of the interaction system of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications with the owners of news aggregators”;
  ')
  
• Order of December 5, 2016 N 307 Moscow (PDF) “On Approval of the Method for Determining the Number of Users of Programs for Electronic Computers, Sites and (or) Pages of Websites on the Internet”, which are used to process and distribute news information in Internet networks per day;
  
  
• Order of December 5, 2016 N 308 Moscow (PDF) “On approving the form and procedure for sending by the authorized state bodies the requirement to take measures to stop the dissemination by the news aggregator of falsified socially important information, unreliable socially significant news information under the guise of reliable messages, news information disseminated in violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation ";
  

Published orders finally fix the procedure for interaction between the regulator and news accounts or aggregators. Now, if there are clear instructions for interacting with distributors of information, the agency will be able to put Internet censorship through the removal of materials on stream.

The most interesting are orders №306 and №308 of December 5, 2016.

For example, according to the text of order No. 306, paragraph 9, Roskomnadzor “for the purpose of organizing interaction” from the news aggregator can be given remote access to its systems with the transfer of logins and passwords :


Screenshot of the text of the order number 306

Also now the news aggregators will have to report for each fact of the removal or change of the disputed information to the RKN through a “personal account”. Including with the provision of screenshots and other evidence of the execution of the prescription:


Screenshot of the text of the order number 306

The order number 308 of December 5, 2016 clearly states that Roskomnadzor will accept only valid claims from other state bodies (most likely from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the courts, approx. Red).

In order to remove information from public access / its changes, it will not only be necessary to correctly draw up the treatment with attached evidence of the placement of information of a wrongful nature. At the same time, the decision of the court is optional: it can be replaced by any decision of another state authority, and of all the “evidence”, only screenshots will be required, which is clearly spelled out in paragraph 8 of order No. 308:


Screenshot of the text of the order number 308

Now, according to the order of Roskomnadzor, to extract any information from the news aggregator tape, only:

• Properly completed form (attached to the order);
• Signature of the head of the state applicant body or his deputy;
• The decision of the state body that the information is falsified / unreliable (the court decision is not necessary, but if it is available, is also taken by the RKN);
• The presence of the aggregator in the registry;
• Link to the page and screenshot.

In fact, with these orders, Roskomnadzor assigns to any state bodies the right to fulfill the function of the courts and to decide on what information is “falsified” and is subject to censorship.