New Russian Law Criminalizes Online Searches For Controversial Content (washingtonpost.com) 59
Russian lawmakers passed sweeping new legislation allowing authorities to fine individuals simply for searching and accessing content labeled "extremist" via VPNs. The Washington Post reports: Russia defines "extremist materials" as content officially added by a court to a government-maintained registry, a running list of about 5,500 entries, or content produced by "extremist organizations" ranging from "the LGBT movement" to al-Qaeda. The new law also covers materials that promote alleged Nazi ideology or incite extremist actions. Until now, Russian law stopped short of punishing individuals for seeking information online; only creating or sharing such content is prohibited. The new amendments follow remarks by high-ranking officials that censorship is justified in wartime. Adoption of the measures would mark a significant tightening of Russia's already restrictive digital laws.
The fine for searching for banned content in Russia would be about a $65, while the penalty for advertising circumvention tools such as VPN services would be steeper -- $2,500 for individuals and up to $12,800 for companies. Previously, the most significant expansion of Russia's restrictions on internet use and freedom of speech occurred shortly after the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when sweeping laws criminalized the spread of "fake news" and "discrediting" the Russian military. The new amendment was introduced Tuesday and attached to a mundane bill on regulating freight companies, according to documents published by Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma.
The fine for searching for banned content in Russia would be about a $65, while the penalty for advertising circumvention tools such as VPN services would be steeper -- $2,500 for individuals and up to $12,800 for companies. Previously, the most significant expansion of Russia's restrictions on internet use and freedom of speech occurred shortly after the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when sweeping laws criminalized the spread of "fake news" and "discrediting" the Russian military. The new amendment was introduced Tuesday and attached to a mundane bill on regulating freight companies, according to documents published by Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma.
Once you lose free speech (Score:5, Insightful)
You lose everything. Liberty, democracy, you name it. Over time it goes away because you've lost basically the only defense against tyranny. Doesn't matter your ideology. But if your ideology requires giving up free speech, especially political speech, even if it's "only temporary" then you've given up the rest as well.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
You can be sure Trump is taking notes.
Re: (Score:3)
It’s been proposed. https://www.vanityfair.com/new... [vanityfair.com]
Your isp would have to block all abortion related content.
Re: (Score:3)
Russia has lost democracy years before losing free speech and decades before the ideology arrived?
Re: (Score:3)
TFA and all comments are now prohibited from viewing in Russia.
Re: Once you lose free speech (Score:2)
They never truly had it. Though Europe in general just doesn't put a high value in it.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news... [msn.com]
Apparently it's even a crime to show your middle finger to the French president or say that a German politician hates freedom of opinion. Though Europe mostly hasn't known democracy even a century yet, half of it no more than a few decades.
Re: (Score:2)
Russia has lost democracy years before losing free speech and decades before the ideology arrived?
Did Russia ever have freedom of expression (why limit it to speech, if I want to call Pootin a cunt via the means of interpretive dance why shouldn't I)? I remember when I was in my 20s they regularly targeted Russian Celebrities that dared speak out against the government and now I'm a man in my 40s (Tatu was the famous one from the early 00s).
I'm pretty sure they've never had a real democracy either, just something that kind of looked like it between despotic governments.
But the OP has a good point,
Re: (Score:2)
this goes actually beyond supressing free speech, it's targeting the mere access of information.
then again they are at war, and the enemy is known to play dirty. still, a poor decision. then again, i'm not really sure how this is even to be enforced. the whole point of using a vpn is obfuscating your traffic, and i hear a number of them are still accessible from within russia. i guess targeted individuals might indeed be compromised but ... the whole population? ai? or is this just supposed to scare off?
Re: (Score:2)
this goes actually beyond supressing free speech, it's targeting the mere access of information.
This is true. This is suppressing mere questions, let alone actual thinking or communication of thoughts.
Re: Once you lose free speech (Score:3)
So now a war, not SMO (Score:5, Insightful)
The new amendments follow remarks by high-ranking officials that censorship is justified in wartime.
So is Russia now officially at war, or are they still trying to pretend it is a SMO?
Slava Ukraini!
Re: (Score:3)
So is Russia now officially at war, or are they still trying to pretend it is a SMO?
it started as a smo, and that's still the official name, but putin, media and many other officials have referred to it as war on numerous occasions, indirectly and directly. everybody knows they are at war. and almost everybody is at war, this is actually world war 3 taking off.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, because I'm sure the Russian security apparatus is really gonna go arrest Big Bad Vlad for breaking his own repressive rules.
Re:This kind of thing causes Dark Ages and N. Kore (Score:5, Insightful)
Musk bans people left and right if they say unfavorable things about him. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/a... [pbs.org]
But hey go on about “wokeness”.
Re: (Score:2)
Musk bans people left and right if they say unfavorable things about him. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/a... [pbs.org]
But hey go on about “wokeness”.
I thought they'd switched to "DEI" now because everyone started ignoring the nasal whines of "woke".
I find it ironic that those who complain the loudest about so-called "cancel culture" seem to be the ones that are trying the hardest to silence others criticisms of them.
So it appears they aren't opposed to "cancel culture", they just want to be the only one's who are permitted to do the cancelling. It's a good thing cancel culture doesn't exist and there are plenty of alternatives to TheAppFormerlyKno
Re: (Score:2)
i hope the West realizes that it may be slipping in the same directions. UK esp and Germany esp.
have been for a while, it's crazy already. terrorists now apparently wield very dangerous placcards.
I hate that line (Score:4, Interesting)
Democracy dies at the county level. Democracy dies with little old ladies and little old men sending broken voting machines to districts that would vote for democracy. It dies with those same little ladies and little old men doing Mass numbers of challenges to voter registrations and voter signatures and then requiring the people challenged to go down to the courthouse on a weekday when you know damn well most of them can't take that time off.
Nasty little voter suppression tactics done at the county level are what killed democracy in the real world. It's the true banality of evil.
Democracy wins at the state and federal level but then people who are pro-democracy don't like wielding power.
In America this translates to a weak Democrat party and a strong Republican party. The Republican party has money to put psychopaths in charge of local seats at the county level and at the end of the day unless you take those people and threaten them with jail time for subverting the elections they're going to do it because that's what they've been told to do. Some of them are getting paid some of them think they're on their way to a new political career and some of them are just crazy ass true believers.
That nice little lady the bakes cookies or that charming old dude that talks about old cars with you is the one that you need to worry about. Not emperor palpatine. The kind of useful idiots that will eventually have their houses taken away from them so that one of the billionaires can be the first trillionaire.
Re: I hate that line (Score:2)
Re:This kind of thing causes Dark Ages and N. Kore (Score:5, Insightful)
The president of the United States extorted $16 million dollar bribes from CBS and ABC for stories that were obviously covered by the first amendment.
The attorney general of the United States threatened to charge CNN with a crime for publishing a story about a public web site.
The president of the United States threatened to revoke the citizenship of a US citizen for saying mean things about him.
"It's ok now that we're past the BLM wokeness" is a line from someone with a very skewed news diet.
"freedom"(tm) (Score:1)
You expect that nonsense from outright Nazis, Musk bros and Talebangicals.
This country had a good run, but it does appear to be time to leave.
Re: (Score:1)
More like Soviets marry Christian Taliban. Putin is like an evangelical.
Re:This kind of thing causes Dark Ages and N. Kore (Score:5, Insightful)
The US at least has the 1st Amendment... between 9/11 w/ the Patriot Act and then the BLM wokeness, it took some hits, but last year or two, maybe the pendulum is swinging toward more freedom
He says, while college students are actively being arrested and imprisoned for having the temerity to exercise that free speech in the form of protest and journalism...
Open your god damn eyes please.
Re: (Score:2)
He says, while college students are actively being arrested and imprisoned for having the temerity to exercise that free speech in the form of protest and journalism...
fair enough. i've been kind of ignoring the so called "anti-semitism" stuff against Harvard and trying to strip greencard holders for protests because i just put them in the outrageous Trump political stuff bucket that i assume the courts will throw out because it's so clearly protected conduct.
But it IS anti-speech and i i'm sure some people agree w/ him ... which is pretty terrible.
Re: (Score:1)
Hurting innocent people while taking hostages during a violent riot that seizes control of a building is not "speech", it's terrorism and hostage taking. Thanks for putting antisemitism in quotes though. Tells everyone what they need to know about how you feel about Jews.
Re: (Score:1)
Hurting innocent people while taking hostages during a violent riot that seizes control of a building is not "speech", it's terrorism and hostage taking. People are opening their eyes, it's why they're seeing through lies like yours.
Re: (Score:2)
It's sad to see Russia slipping back towards the USSR days openly. I mean yeah, behind the scenes FSB etc was still always around
Putin is a former KGB agent. Nothing behind the scenes about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Officer, not agent.
Green.... (Score:1)
Russian lawmakers passed sweeping new legislation allowing authorities to fine individuals simply for searching and accessing content labeled "extremist" ...
....and once again MAGA goes green with envy.
Both sidesing it... (Score:2)
With where the Internet is currently at with disinformation proliferation and a solid minority (if not majority) of netizens unable or unwillling to think critically and vet their sources, I'm not entirely convinced this is as bad as it sounds.
Oh wait, this isn't the government stepping in to offer credible, third-party validation of information and sources, it's just Orwell in Russian form. Never mind.
Most definitely can't search (Score:2)
For anything related to the war in Ukraine such as, "Has Russia lost over 1 million men in Ukraine?" or, "How many generals have been killed in Ukraine?", or, "What happened to the Moskva?".
No way in hell they'll let that slip through.
Re: (Score:2)
and "How do I avoid having a window office in a high-rise?"
Re: (Score:2)
and "How do I avoid having a window office in a high-rise?"
Most Russians prefer the added safety of cubicles.
Sooooo... (Score:2)
There's a list with over 5k entries of forbidden subjects to search on the Internet.
And how do people know what searches are forbidden without looking it up on the Internet?
Re: (Score:2)
And how do people know what searches are forbidden without looking it up on the Internet?
The list is whatever they say it is, and the forbidden searches are whatever they say they are, and this will change whenever it is convenient.
Re: (Score:2)
Zelinski's Revenge! (Score:2)
Maybe Ukraine hackers can frame bunches of Russian military commanders. Put gay S&M Putin AI porn on all their desktops.
Re: (Score:2)
Russia is Gay (Score:1)
The fact that they're trying to block LGBT content clearly proves that Russia has a big interest in it; Russia is gay.
2 years into Trump's third term (Score:1)
Promote alleged Nazi ideology (Score:2)
Like invading neighboring Eastern European countries?
DOGE has a quicker solution... (Score:2)
Just arrest and imprision everybody and let them out one-by-one after they profess their undying fealty to whatever moron is currently in power.
Re: (Score:2)
slashdot is a US platform. Can you start any of those discussions, and we see if your posts get removed?
And I thought ... (Score:2)
And I thought they make a law about the cloud services scanning their user's data. That would be appropriate.
Not groundbreaking (Score:1)