In Belarus, approved in the first reading a bill on the mandatory identification of commentators on the forums

On April 19, 2018, the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus approved in the first reading the draft law “On introducing amendments and addenda to some laws of Belarus”, which provides for the amendment of the law on mass media, the Tax Code, the Administrative Code and the PICoAP. 98 deputies voted “for”, “against” - 2.



Among the main innovations :

• The concept of “network publication” and “owner of an Internet resource” is introduced.
• The ban on anonymous comments on any online resources (not only in online publications).
• Mandatory pre-moderation of comments.
• The owner of the Internet resource is obliged within 5 days from the date of receipt of the request from the Ministry of Information to provide the requested information about any user. At the same time, neither the purpose, nor the scope, nor the nature of the requested information are defined in the draft law.

• Internet resources are required to maintain information about the identity of each commentator for at least 6 months.
• For violation of the law, Internet resources are subject to fines from 50 to 5,000 base amounts (from $ 610 to $ 61,000).
• The Ministry of Information acquires the right to request from the owner of Internet resources, the provider of Internet services information necessary for analyzing the information posted on the Internet resource, as well as data identifying its owner.
• Voluntary registration of Internet resources as online publications in the Ministry of Information is being introduced.
• The registered Internet resource can be closed after receiving three warnings, an unregistered publication - immediately after the first warning of the Ministry of Information, without a court.
• A ban is imposed on the distribution of foreign media products in Belarus without a permit, and the editorial offices of the TV channels must ensure that the volume of national production of at least 30% of the weekly broadcast volume.

The identification procedure for commentators will be determined by the government. Answering the deputies' questions, the Minister of Information, Alexander Karlyukevich, explained that most likely the identification will be carried out by SMS.

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The minister also said that the need for changes to the Media Law is also connected with the harmonization of the Belarusian legislation with the laws of Russia and Kazakhstan. When asked whether the audience would not leave Belarusian sites (where they introduce mandatory identification of commentators) to foreign Internet sites, the minister replied: “Many owners of Internet resources today have identification, and this does not cause outrage. Probably, the forecast you are talking about will concern major Internet sites that are interested in large volumes of advertising. If a consumer and those participants of social networks, e-space a priori do not comply with the legislative base and go into some other space, perhaps not accessible to our other consumers, I do not see anything terrible. ”



Belarus already blocks access to individual sites, so citizens have to use proxies and VPNs. For example, over the past year, at the initiative of the Ministry of Information “for posting prohibited information”, access to the oppositional sites Belarusian Belorussia and Charter'97 has been blocked.



The Belarusian Internet community as a whole reacted negatively to the initiative of the deputies, although some commentators noted some positive points. For example, the new law will impede the work of professional "trolls" who, on the instructions of the leadership, stamp political comments on many sites, getting paid for it. In addition, often in political (and not only political) discussions, it is anonymous commentators who are intolerant of interlocutors: “Authorization will not destroy freedom of speech, but, on the contrary, will strengthen it by reducing the level of lies, aggression and moral decay on the Web,” writes Dmitry Gurnevich, blogger and correspondent of the Belarusian service "Radio Liberty". “I read over a hundred anonymous comments every day.” Only a few of them - in form and content - in the subject. The rest - a continuous language of hatred, for which in real life a person would be threatened with punishment. And, most likely, in real life, he would have refrained from such a stream of consciousness. And if he could not resist, then no one would take him seriously. This flood, with slander, threats and baseless accusations, devalues ​​the word, introduces the authors into the habit (provided they are living people) not being responsible for their words. ”



The Belarusian Association of Journalists calls on the second reading to consider the amendments proposed by it and other players of the media space. For example, the founder of Tut.by, Yuri Zisser, hopes that the deputies will allow the registration of commentators through social networks - this can save the situation.



The law will take effect five months after the date of its publication. From now on, a six-month transition period will take effect.