The Russian government is working on a law that will make it possible to restrict access to social media in the country if they discriminate against Russian news organizations.
Russian media such as RIA Novosti, Russia Today and Crimea 24 are said to have complained about the behavior of the social media giants, according to Russian politicians. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube would regularly ban their channels.
Twitter’s policy of providing a warning label to tweets from these channels also led to criticism. With this warning label, Twitter wants to indicate that these channels are affiliated with the Russian state.
The bill describes this as “curtailing access to information” for Russian citizens. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs determines under this proposal which tech companies would be to blame.
The Russian government has been working on ways to gain a better grip on the internet for some time. For example, last year a law was passed to direct all internet traffic through specific nodes that are in the hands of the authorities. Internet providers must also keep an eye on all Internet traffic.
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