Roskomnadzor supported the initiative and stated that the administrations of social networks “should understand that they have a great responsibility for the disseminated information.” “Especially if children and adolescents have access to information,” the department stressed.
Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, noted in a commentary to the publication that the proposal was ready to be discussed in the lower house.
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The Kremlin said there were no new initiatives to regulate social networks
Last summer, President Vladimir Putin signed a law requiring large foreign IT companies to set up branches and representative offices in Russia. According to the law, companies with a daily audience of more than 500,000 Russian users, whose content is published in Russian and whose advertising is directed to a Russian audience, must create their own branch from January 1, 2022.
State Duma deputy from United Russia Anton Gorelkin specified that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Twitter, TikTok, Google AdWords and YouTube advertising service (owned by Google), Viber, Telegram, as well as gaming services Steam (Valve Corporation) will fall under the bill and World of Tanks (Wargaming).
Earlier, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, explained that the law became necessary after Google LLC answered Roskomnadzor that it had nothing to do with Google LLC, to which the authorities had questions. And also when TikTok, according to Kiriyenko, recommended political content for viewing by children aged 14. When asked by the authorities about the reason, it turned out that the representative office in Russia does not have legal powers.
In addition, a law came into force in Russia on February 1, 2021, according to which social networks must independently identify and block prohibited content. This definition includes materials containing obscene language, information about state secrets, extremist materials and other prohibited content.