Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation proposes to strengthen censorship on the Internet

It seems that black times are coming for the Russian Internet. The state seriously considers the World Wide Web as an instrument of foreign propaganda, which must be fought by any means. The concept of state policy in the field of combating extremism and actions in the information war was announced by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Law, Professor Alexander Bastrykin in an article specifically for the Kommersant Vlast magazine.

So, the key point is that "the last decade, Russia, and a number of other countries, are living in the conditions of the so-called hybrid war unleashed by the United States and its allies." The country will have to “put an effective barrier to this information war. We need a tough, adequate and symmetrical answer, ”said Alexander Bastrykin.
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To counter the threat, the professor proposes several measures to tighten control over the Internet.

1. Control of online media

Interesting in this regard is the experience of foreign states opposing the United States and its allies. Due to unprecedented informational pressure, they went to the restrictions of foreign media in order to protect the national information space. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Informatization of China, from March 10, 2016, has imposed a ban on the operation of electronic media, wholly or partly owned by foreign residents. Such mass media will no longer be able to disseminate information through the Internet, and at best, through print media. Chinese media will cooperate with foreign online media only if they have permission from this ministry. In the leadership of the national media can work only citizens of China. Online media servers can only be located in China.

It seems that, to a reasonable extent, this experience could well have been put into service in Russia.

2. Strengthen surveillance of Internet users

For Internet providers, it is necessary to develop uniform rules for the storage of personal information of their customers and users in the right amount in case such information will be required when investigating cybersecurity breaches.

3. Increased censorship

In public places of access to the World Wide Web (libraries, schools, other educational institutions) install filters that restrict access to sites containing extremist materials.

In addition, it seems appropriate to provide an extrajudicial (administrative) procedure for including information in the federal list of extremist materials, as well as blocking the domain names of sites that disseminate extremist and radical-nationalist information. At the same time, if the owners of such information do not consider it extremist, let them themselves appeal against the relevant actions of the authorized state bodies to the court and prove there that they are right. Such an order will enable more quickly and efficiently to respond to the propaganda of extremism on the Internet. It is necessary to intensify work on the introduction of modern technical means for the effective control of radio and the Internet.

4. Prohibition of cryptocurrency

Experience has shown that, in order to finance terrorism, a virtual cryptocurrency is often used, which does not have a centralized issuer, a single center of control over transactions, and is characterized by the anonymity of payments. In addition, as a result of widespread use, these currencies may oust legal money from the market, which threatens the financial stability of the state. With this in mind, it is proposed to introduce criminal liability for the illegal production and circulation of cryptocurrencies, as well as other monetary surrogates.

It remains only to state with regret that by “extremism” Russian courts sometimes understand any dissent. As a result, the “fight against extremism” can result in the fight against dissent, the suppression of freedom of speech and total state censorship, which causes some inconvenience when working on the Internet.