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Law Repressing Social Media, Bloggers Now In Effect In Russia

Posted by timothy on from the it-takes-a-village-but-not-yours dept.

An anonymous reader writes On Friday, Russia implemented a new law that significantly limits its citizens' online free speech. Under this new law, social media sites must "retain user data for at least six months...within the country's boundaries so it can be available for government inspection." Also, "bloggers with at least 3,000 daily readers must register with Roskomnadzor, the regulator that also oversees Russia's main media outlets." This, of course, means that popular bloggers will no longer be able to remain anonymous.

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Edward Snowden's Plan B? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    You're completely missing the whole "enemy combatant" part, which really is THE KEY to the whole GitMo thing. And though it is the nihilistic hipster thing to cry about how our friends Eddie and Julian (we love calling them by their first names because it makes us feel like they're one of us, how we know that they'd really like us if they got the chance to know us) would be "thrown into GitMo", they think that because they've worked themselves up in their little hero fantasy narrative that GitMo is some kind of political prison or gulag (ha, see what I did there?). That is an unbelievably stupid thing to say. Anyway, can you imagine either of them as enemy combatants picked up on a battlefield? They'd look dopier than Dukakis riding in a tank.

    Second, are you really that stupid?? "Where you can't find a way to charge them" . . . just like Snowden??? Are you so wrapped up in your hero worship that you really don't have even the slightest idea what he did? He STOLE CLASSIFIED MATERIAL, RELEASED IT, and GAVE IT AWAY! Even HE says he broke the law. And you really think there isn't any grounds to charge him with a crime??? You have got to be (one of) the stupidest people on this site today.

  2. This is just propagandic spin for Dumb Westerners. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 0, Troll

    From RT:
    http://rt.com/politics/177248-...

    Such authors will now have to register with the state watchdog Roskomnadzor, disclose their real identity and follow the same rules as journalists working in conventional state-registered mass media.

      The restrictions include the demand to verify information before publishing it and abstain from releasing reports containing slander, hate speech, extremist calls or other banned information such as, for example, advice on suicide. Also, the law bans popular bloggers from using obscene language, drawing heavy criticism and mockery from the online crowd.

    So.., now you're not legally allowed to lie to a large number of people or incite violence based on those lies. Gee. That's bad how? Might be nice to have something like that in the West, because right now it's perfectly legal for FOX News to outright lie to their viewers.

    Russia, like any large nation the US hates, (see Venezuela) must defend against the standard CIA tactics used to de-stabilize governments and population bases through grass roots propaganda tactics. Forcing creeps and liars out of the game seems like a pretty good way to do this. You don't want to be forced out? Then follow the law and back up your claims with fact checking verification of what you are writing, don't use hate speech and don't incite violence. How hard is that?

    There's a reason you're not allowed to yell "Fire" in a crowded theater, and this falls neatly beneath the same rubric.

    Honestly, think of the gossips and cruel kids in school spreading lies in deliberate attempts to undermine healthy energies. Putin has the guts to whip the carpet out from under such types.

    So now, once you reach 3000 readers, the Russian government says you are a news source with real pull and must start acting in a manner befitting such responsibility. Is 3000 the right magic number to have picked? I don't know, but it makes perfect sense to draw a line somewhere.

    Of course, any law can be abused, but right now I don't see this as an abuse. I see it as a sensible measure as Russia is under increasing media attack by a truly psychopathic nation whose leadership is completely disconnected from objective reality, has a tail-spinning economy and seemingly bottomless war lust. Of course you have to take measures to protect your populace from that kind of sickness.

    But naturally, this proactive move is being spun with wicked and/or childish glee in the West (depending on whether you are CIA or just ignorant and easily led).