A new bill has been introduced in the State Duma proposing the introduction of fines for webmasters, and legal entities responsible for websites, who refuse to remove and delete content at the request of the law.
Developed by United Russia deputies Alexander Khinshtein and Sergey Boyarsky, the bill is intended to bridge a “legal gap”, as the current law on Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection doesn’t cover consequences.
The applies unilaterally to:
- Website owners (webmasters and legal entities)
- Hosting providers
- Open source internet information resources, e.g. Wikipedia
Khinshtein and Boyarsky have said:
At the same time, it has not been established any responsibility for non-compliance with the specified requirements … which creates legal uncertainty and creates conditions conducive to violation of the law.
In support of their words, they cite data from Roskomnadzor. According to them, as of April, about 20 thousand cases were discovered when illegal information was not deleted. This includes inappropriate adult materials, calls for extremism, information on the methods of manufacture and use of drugs, as well as places of their acquisition.
As punishment for failure to take the measures provided for by the law “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information,” and the deletion of information, the authors of the bill propose introducing fines.
- For individuals, they can range from 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles, for officials – from 200 thousand to 400 thousand rubles.
- For legal entities – from 800 thousand to 4 million rubles.
- In case of repeated violation, fines will increase: for citizens, they are provided in the amount of from 100 thousand to 200 thousand rubles, for officials – from 500 thousand to 800 thousand rubles, for enterprises – from 4 million to 8 million rubles.
In case of repeated violation, the amount will increase: for citizens, the fine will be from 200 thousand to 500 thousand rubles, for officials – from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles, for enterprises – from 8 million to 15 million rubles.
