FTS acquired the right to block anonymizers and VPN without trial

The bill that prohibits work in Russia with anonymizers, VPN, Tor and other "technologies that allow access to blocked information resources" has been adopted by the State Duma only in the first reading , but this did not prevent Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Tax Service and Rospotrebnadzor to issue an order ( pdf ), which allows blocking anonymizers out of court. This right has been obtained by the Federal Tax Service (FTS) with the help of Roskomnadzor, Izvestia writes .

The order clearly defines the purpose for which anonymizers are blocked - to deal with means of bypassing locks.

The wording of the order on the criteria for blocking anonymizers (paragraph 4.1.7) almost literally repeats the wording in the law, which is currently being reviewed in the State Duma: “The availability of information and / or programs for electronic computers on a website page that allow access to the website on the Internet, pages on the Internet that host prohibited information that meets the criteria 4.1.1–4.1.6 of these Criteria. ”

According to the legislation, Roskomnadzor finds and blocks content with child pornography and suicide propaganda, the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepares for blocking addresses of sites with materials about drugs and trafficking in them, and the FTS is engaged in blocking an online casino. Now the FTS acquires the right to block anonymizers, VPNs and other "programs for electronic computers that allow access to a [prohibited] website on the Internet."
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According to the authority, the Federal Tax Service will block only anonymizers and VPNs through which you can get access to illegal online casinos. But today there are no anonymizers on the Internet that are specifically designed to access only blocked online casinos. Anonymizers and VPNs usually allow access not only to online casinos, but also to any other sites. That is, the Federal Tax Service with Roskomnadzor, in fact, have the right to block any anonymizer, VPN and Tor gates.

Some experts consider this order illegal. “They are punished not for a violation, but for a hypothetical opportunity to commit a violation. By this logic, one can judge a person for murder, if he has knives in his kitchen. At the same time, the knives themselves are not prohibited, ”says Irina Levova, director for strategic projects at the Internet Research Institute. The deputy director of the Coordination Center of the national domain of the Internet, Sergey Kopylov, is confident in the illegality of the order.

While the order is not appealed, the FTS will work in the prescribed manner. The document entered into force on June 27, 2017.

Recently, the state machine also adopted a law on blocking the "mirrors" of prohibited sites. On July 1, 2017, the President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law “On Amendments to the Federal Law“ On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection ””, which was adopted by the State Duma on June 23, 2017 and approved by the Federation Council on June 28, 2017. According to the law, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of Russia takes “a reasoned decision to recognize the site as a copy of the blocked site and sends this decision to the owner of the site and to Roskomnadzor to take measures to restrict access to the copy of the blocked site, which will be carried out out of court”.