Ban on registration in social networks. Milonov’s other ideas are not allowed on social networks without a passport: the bill is already in the State Duma

The bill by Vitaly Milonov (deputy of United Russia is listed as the sole author) proposes to ban teenagers under 14 from using social networks, and requires the rest to register there only under their real name and surname, indicating their passport data. In addition, it is proposed to establish rules for communication and publication of multimedia in social networks. According to Milonov, such restrictions will help punish distributors of illegal content, protect users from scammers, instigators of child suicide, and solve the problem of “fake pages”. The Kremlin has already called it "unlikely" for the Duma to take such odious measures. The "harmfulness" of the wording of Milonov's bill was also noticed in the General Council of United Russia itself. Interviewed by Novaya Gazeta, Internet experts and human rights activists also doubted that the bill in this form has any chances.

Why Vitaly Milonov's bill is needed: Milonov's version

Social networks have an unclear legal status, the initiator of the law believes. This leads to "tragedies": Milonov cites as an example, who was convicted for reposting someone else's video of bullying a child in a children's camp (now Chudnovets).

To regulate social networks, the deputy proposes to create an “interdepartmental coordinating body to control the implementation of activities in social networks”, where they will monitor compliance with the rules in social networks and choose ways to control them.

Milonov proposes to solve most of the problems either through the deanonymization of the user of the social network up to the indication of passport data at the entrance (then the user who violated the law can be easily held accountable), or through prohibitive measures (no possibility - no problem), or through the most general formulations (“follow the law ”, “do not violate the law”, etc.).

Let's consider in more detail.

Why is there a version that this law is an initiative “against Navalny”?

The bill contains a separate block dedicated to organizing unauthorized rallies through social networks. Milonov proposes to toughen administrative responsibility for this. Organizations that call on people on social networks to go to an unauthorized rally "encroach on undermining the statehood, the sovereignty of the country," the document on the State Duma website says.

The block of the bill, which refers to responsibility for organizing unauthorized rallies, directly refers to the recent mass actions against corruption on March 26, which were organized mainly through the Vkontakte social network. The reason for the protests was the lack of response from the authorities to the popular anti-corruption investigation of the Navalnov Anti-Corruption Foundation. In many regions, the politician's supporters organized street actions. The FBK investigation itself was distributed by Navalny through another social network - Youtube - and was a huge success: to date, the 50-minute film "He is not Dimon to you" has already been watched over 18 million times.

As an official response to the FBK investigation, the authorities put forward the allegation that “citizens were found for a certain amount” for protest actions. In the explanatory note to his bill, Milonov will add only one clarification to this. Appreciate the elegance: VIA SOCIAL NETWORKS find citizens for a certain amount...”, which leads to the conclusion about the terrible danger of social networks.

Why is it convenient to call this law a fight against “groups of death”?

“Groups of death” (the name is taken from Galina Mursaliyeva’s eponymous article in Novaya Gazeta), that is, closed communities for teenagers on VKontakte, whose members are forced to perform tasks with a suicidal bias, are directly mentioned in the bill. Milonov believes that the safety of children online today is not guaranteed by anything, social networks for children “turn into a drug”, teenagers are easy to manipulate.

“The administrators of the “groups of death” suppress the will of the child with their authority in front of him and draw him into a deadly game,” the document that ended up in the State Duma pompously asserts.

Under the pretext of protecting children from suicide instigators, over the past year, politicians and officials at various levels have repeatedly proposed limiting the freedom of information on the Runet. Listing and commenting on them separately does not make sense here. Timely and professional psychological counseling remains a priority tool that really helps a teenager cope with thoughts of suicide. This is what the VKontakte social network practices by building a mechanism for automatically blocking suicidal communities, making it possible to complain about a comment calling for suicide, and connecting psychologists to a hotline whose contacts pop up when the user mentions marked words and expressions.

Elsewhere, an explanatory note to Milonov's bill mentions a proposal to ban "destructive communities in social networks", which can be interpreted more broadly than suicidal publics, but no further explanation is given.

Trade is a "security threat". 18+!

Milonov believes that users under the age of 18 should not buy goods through social networks, as this also "threatens their security."

State employees are slaves of social networks. Deny!

The bill proposes to ban or seriously restrict state employees the rules for using social networks during working hours. Relevant clauses are proposed to be indicated in additional conditions to the employment contract.

Magicians and healers: ban!

"Special attention - reposts ..."

One of the few really important, but completely unwritten initiatives in the bill. Milonov, referring to the “Chudnovets case” as a resonant case, proposes to withdraw from punishment users who reposted (that is, indicated the source of the entry) if the distributed content is found to violate the law.

What is not clear

Commenting rules?

The bill contains a lot of vague wording and requirements, which is very confusing. This fully applies to the paragraph about the commenting rules, where users are instructed to comply with applicable laws, protect their passwords and not distribute personal information about third parties on social networks.

The "bad influence" of social media?

The clause that social networks have a "pernicious influence" on teenagers was left without explanation in the bill. As an example, only the case of Diana Shurygina is mentioned, the interest in which is associated with the “dissoluteness of modern youth”.

Fraudsters have infiltrated the charity industry. Strictly control!

For charitable activities in social networks, Milonov proposes to establish “special requirements”, as scammers have learned to use a wide audience for their own purposes. What is meant by "special requirements" is not specified.

About money: “... Will not require additional funds from the budget»

Milonov believes that the implementation of the positions of the bill he proposes will not burden the budget in any way.

Reaction of experts and stakeholders

Artem Kozlyuk

Roskomsvoboda project manager, lawyer

“Even against the backdrop of regressive draft laws on the Runet, this one stands out for its legal illiteracy”

- I hope that the bill will not be adopted in such an absurd form. Even against the backdrop of regressive bills on the Internet space, he stands out for his legal illiteracy and lack of understanding of the main thing he is dedicated to - the functioning of social networks.

It contains a number of risks for both users and the Russian business community.

Many, reading the bill, focus on the fact that children will not be allowed into social networks. But for this, all users must provide their personal data. This is strange, because when interacting with each other offline, we do not present our passport data to a nearby police officer or the owner of a cafe in which we carry out our social interaction. And deputy Milonov for some reason believes that we are obliged to introduce ourselves at the entrance. Although the right to anonymity is already a digital human right, the UN says so. Each of us has the right to anonymize ourselves.

Farther. The bill obliges social networks to collect and store our data. That is, we face the risk of leaks of confidential information. This is despite the fact that we periodically see how massive leaks of such data occur, which then pop up either on the black markets or are published in the open. This applies to both government information systems and conventional services. And this will continue to happen, despite fines and such bills.

I cautiously and optimistically hope that this bill will either be frozen or transformed. Although, of course, it can be transformed into an even worse side by adding new terms.

- My point of view is probably close to the point of view of the State Duma. What happened now, it seems to me, is a thirst for PR. I don't really understand her. Maybe the low corporatism of Mr. Milonov is to blame. For example, when we introduced a draft law on medicine, we first received the approval of the Committee on Medicine of the State Duma. I think this is important when you enter someone else's territory. Not in the sense that it is simply "foreign", but that the entire bill is superficial. It shows that the people who wrote it have absolutely no idea how social networks work.
If tomorrow we get a legal decision that networks cannot serve children under 14, then

we will face the fact that we will simply lose the audience immediately, which will be taken by foreign companies. Maybe Mr. Milonov bought shares in Snapchat or Facebook. I don't know, but from the outside it looks something like this.

The introduction of passport data sounds crazy, because the feeling that people live in some kind of social past. If we enter passport data, we have a problem of storing personal data.

These people do not understand at all, but what will we do with the citizens of Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus who live in our country and those who use social networks in Russian-speaking cities of their countries and provide general social connections between network users? What should we do, turn them off and kick them out?

I think it all looks crazy. And without answering these questions, it is irresponsible to introduce such a bill into the Duma.

With the participation of Yulia Mineeva and Konstantin Poleskov

The Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region has developed a draft law "On the legal regulation of the activities of social networks", according to which the owner of the service will be required to check the passport data of users. Accordingly, persons under the age of 14 will not be able to use social networks, since they do not yet have a passport. If the document is adopted, any citizen will be able to create only one page and only under the real name and surname, otherwise a fine will follow: the owner of the site - up to 300 thousand rubles, the user - up to 5 thousand. The authors of the bill believe that it should come into force from January 1, 2018, Izvestia reported.

“For the sake of public safety, it is necessary to introduce the principle of universal verification of users, this can only be done from the moment a citizen receives a passport - from the age of 14. No one is trying to introduce censorship or restrict freedom of speech. Verification and strict control over the authenticity of names will only increase the price of your own opinion and virtual communication, ”said one of the authors of the document, a deputy Vladimir Petrov.

The opinions of politicians, representatives of the Internet industry and public organizations about the bill were divided.

"It's against all trends"

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Leonid Levin criticized the initiative. “This, in fact, contradicts all existing trends in the development of technology, when the Internet is actively getting younger,” he told a TASS correspondent. “Depriving a significant part of teenagers of the opportunity to use accounts on social networks will simply cut off their access to the usual communication tool that they are used to using not only for entertainment purposes, but also for educational purposes. A virtual ban on communication will only provoke teens' interest in circumventing bans or aggressive behavior off the Internet, ”he continued.

Head of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children Tamara Pletneva compared the initiative of the deputies of the Leningrad region with "throwing from corner to corner." “How can we close access to children today? To completely close access, when young people live by it, it seems to me that this will cause even more discontent,” she said. At the same time, Pletneva stressed that dangerous sites containing calls for suicide and other destructive information should be blocked.

“Such norms are fraught with rather serious consequences. Firstly, the forbidden fruit is always sweet, so sooner or later there will be smart people who, for example, will learn how to generate passport numbers and sell it to schoolchildren for money, ”said the chairman of the commission of the Public Chamber (OP) of the Russian Federation on public control Dmitry Galochkin. “As recent events have shown, various groups and organizations are increasingly trying to lure teenagers into the so-called dark net, and such bans will only benefit them. Therefore, we must not follow the path of new bans and the creation of additional barriers, but rather start working more competently and more closely with young people,” he added.

"I would support"

Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation Alexey Alexandrov told RIA Novosti that the mandatory verification of the passport data of all Internet users will not be a violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, on the contrary, the implementation of the initiative will resolve the issue of anonymous slander on the Internet. “The text of such a bill needs to be carefully worked out with discussion at the expert level, but the idea itself is good, I would support it,” he said.

Psychologist Ludmila Petranovskaya in an interview with this publication she noted: “If you think that you can control a child on the Internet - forbid him something or read his correspondence, do not flatter yourself. Are you sure that he did not start two accounts and does not write in one what you read, and in the other what he wants? Are you sure that he didn’t start an account from a friend’s phone, and you don’t even know about it and are sincerely sure that your child is not on social networks? Checks don't guarantee anything."
“What degree of control is justified, I do not know, and no one knows now. On the one hand, this is a violation of personal boundaries. On the other hand, the parents of children who have been seriously affected, of course, would prefer to have control. Although there are no guarantees that it would save. And someone, maybe, was saved, ”she said.

In the meantime, in the European Union, from 2018, social media users will have to prove they are over 16 or obtain parental permission.

MOSCOW, April 10 - RIA Novosti. State Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov submitted on Friday to the chamber for consideration a bill on registering users in social networks exclusively by passport and on a ban on registration for children under 14; the initiative received a wide response, but officials and deputies spoke out against such innovations, calling the bill harmful and unrealistic.

Last week it became known that the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg have developed a project that will significantly limit the anonymity of Russians on the Internet. Users under the age of 14 were asked to deny access to social networks, and everyone else was asked to register accounts exclusively under their real name with the obligatory use of passport data.

On Friday morning, the bill appeared in the electronic database of the lower house of parliament under the authorship of the State Duma deputy from St. Petersburg Vitaly Milonov.

In social networks by passport

The bill establishes the principles of legal regulation of relations in the field of social networks, in particular, introduces a ban on registration in social networks of children under 14 years of age. The document specifies that the owner of the social network, upon registration, is obliged to demand from the user in electronic form an identity document that allows you to establish the last name, first name, patronymic (if any) and his age. At the same time, registration is carried out only under the real name and surname, pseudonyms are not allowed. It is also not allowed for one individual to have several pages in one social network.

The bill obliges the user to immediately notify the owner of the social network in the event of a change in personal data.

Also, according to the draft, it is prohibited to disseminate deliberately false information, provide false personal data during registration, use social networks during working hours when working in organizations fully financed from the budget system of the Russian Federation, as well as during office hours when performing state civil service.

Ban on calls to participate in unsanctioned rallies

The MP proposes to ban the use of social networks for the purpose of organizing unauthorized rallies, demonstrations and marches, including establishing a ban on the dissemination of information about their holding and calls for participation in them.

According to the draft, users are prohibited from distributing any kind of information that is harmful to the health and (or) development of children, as well as providing it directly to minors. It is also proposed to prohibit the dissemination of information, voice information, texts, images, sound recordings, musical works, audiovisual works containing objects of copyright and (or) related rights, without the permission of the copyright holder.

The bill contains a ban on the distribution of texts of correspondence with other users without their prior consent. It also provides for a ban on providing and disseminating "information promoting national, class, social intolerance, the use of alcohol and (or) tobacco products, social, racial, national, religious inequality, non-traditional sexual relations, violence, cruelty, drug addiction, substance abuse, antisocial behavior , foul language", as well as distribute images, audiovisual works of a pornographic nature.

In addition, the draft contains a clause prohibiting the provision and distribution of materials containing public calls for terrorist activities or publicly justifying terrorism, as well as other extremist materials.

"Unrealistic and harmful" project

As the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov told reporters, the Kremlin has not yet got acquainted with the bill, but read about it in the media. He called the provisions allegedly from the draft law, which are discussed in the media, unrealistic.

"We have not seen the essence of this bill, but only read in the media those provisions that may be contained in it, which we are not sure about. Those provisions that are discussed in the media are, of course, unrealistic, so it is hardly necessary to take any some position," Peskov said, answering a question about how the Kremlin evaluates this initiative and whether they think "that this could violate the constitutional human rights to access to information and protect personal data."

In turn, a colleague of the author of the bill in the faction, a member of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, Yevgeny Revenko (ER), said that such an initiative is harmful and will only alienate young people, excessive prohibitive measures will lead to the emergence of other methods of communication, and therefore they are ineffective.

“This initiative has not been discussed with anyone: neither in the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, nor in the United Russia faction. I don’t think that prohibitive measures in social networks are the right tool. methods of communication. As a rule, measures of this kind require careful study, comprehensive discussion, including with the younger generation," Revenko said.

The development of the Internet cannot be stopped

The head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Leonid Levin, called the bill difficult to implement and stressed that the implementation of this initiative would put the Russian Federation among the third world countries in terms of regulating the Internet and protecting the rights of citizens.

“Given the public outcry and media attention to this topic, such ideas, unfortunately, will multiply like mushrooms. The initiative itself is difficult to implement and speaks of a lack of understanding by the authors of the very essence of the Internet and the mechanisms of its work,” Levin told reporters.

He noted that the network is cross-border and it is impossible to stop the development of information technologies, no matter how much someone would like it. "The technical implementation of the bill seems difficult to implement and will require significant funds, both from the state and from the Internet industry," the head of the committee stressed.

According to Levin, on the Internet, in social networks, in particular, Russian legislation has already defined a list of existing restrictions that are imposed on the dissemination of illegal content, including propaganda of extremism and incitement to suicide.

The head of the committee also recalled that access to the network today is already carried out using the citizen's data. “When purchasing a SIM card, you must provide a passport, when connecting the home Internet, an agreement is concluded between the user and the operator, when using public Wi-Fi points, you must go through the verification procedure,” Levin said.

"The implementation of the initiative of Deputy Milonov will throw us into the number of third world countries in terms of regulating the Internet and protecting the rights of citizens," the head of the State Duma committee is convinced.

He drew attention to the fact that it is parents who have the opportunity to restrict children's access to a smartphone or tablet, use various secure Internet services, children's Internet, monitor which portals their child is interested in, and, if necessary, conduct explanatory conversations that would allow children to understand that there are not only advantages but also threats in using the network.

The authors of the bill also propose to prohibit social network users from informing citizens about unauthorized meetings and rallies, disseminate information about uncoordinated events and publish correspondence with other users without their consent. In addition, the bill provides for a ban on the dissemination of any information that promotes national and other intolerance, the use of alcohol and tobacco products, non-traditional sexual relations, and so on, "unless the message is accompanied by a clear condemnation of these materials," the newspaper notes.

Video: RBC

According to Vladimir Petrov, one of the authors of the initiative, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region, the law should come into force on January 1, 2018. As Petrov noted, social networks will have enough time to bring user agreements in line with it, remove those who are under 14 years old, and collect passport data from the rest.

VKontakte spokesman Yevgeny Krasnikov told RBC that the initiative "looks really unfinished." “At a minimum, it would be worthwhile to legally oblige users of social networks to pass the TRP standards before each entry into their account. Only excellent students and children of deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region are exempted from this duty, ”Krasnikov noted.

“Perhaps this bill was being prepared for April 1st. Today is already the 5th, the news is late, ”Anastasia Zhbanova, a representative of the Odnoklassniki social network, told RBC.

“Only out of a feeling of deepest respect for the deputies of the Leningrad region, we leave your request without comment,” the press service of Mail.Ru Group replied.

Dmitry Marinichev, Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs on the Internet, called the bill "heresy." “What nonsense! It's time to cancel your passport. And they offer us passport data to drive. We are moving into a digital era where registration and authorization must go a different way,” he said.

Commenting on the proposal to ban children under 14 from using social networks, Marinichev said: “It will not work. Yes, this is pointless, because children have a need for socialization. The problem is not solved that way."

“It is possible to adopt such a law, and it will not lead to anything, except for a gap in consciousness between the adequacy of reality and the imposition of regulation, which is not quite natural for people. In fact, this will have an absolutely negative effect on the authorities. There will be public protests. As a result, society will understand that such management is not needed at all and that it can be structured and organized differently,” Marinichev emphasized.

How different countries of the world restrict children's access to the Internet

AT USA Attempts to regulate the access of minors to materials on the Internet have been made since the mid-1990s, but this experience has not always been successful. Often, child protection laws on the Internet were accused of censorship, and subsequently acts already passed by Congress were annulled by the decision of the Constitutional Court.

So, in 1996, the Communications Decency Act was adopted at the federal level, which made it illegal to post “knowingly offensive content” on the Web. As one of the reasons for the adoption of the act, its initiators called the need to limit children's access to unwanted information. However, in the end, the law was declared unconstitutional.

Two years later, the Child Online Protection Act was adopted, according to which the access of minors to any "harmful material" on the Global Web was limited. The court also found the law unconstitutional, noting that it infringes on the rights of adults; the document did not spell out the practice of determining the user's age.

Currently, the US only requires schools and libraries to use special filters to protect children from inappropriate content.

In the countries of the European Union children's access to information on the Internet is not specifically regulated, and any attempt to regulate it leads to accusations of censorship. At the same time, providers are responsible for the security of content. In January 2013, the European Anti-Corruption Center was opened in The Hague. cybercrime, which conducts, among other things, operations against the distribution of child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.

One of the most advanced systems for protecting children from inappropriate content exists In Great Britain. There, in 2013, a law was passed introducing a system of filters for the provider. At the request of the user, access to materials of various categories may be limited. By the beginning of 2014, about 40% of British families with children aged 5 to 15 had used such filters.

A similar system was launched in 2011 in Turkey- there the user can request from the provider various options for filtering materials. However, these systems include not only content dangerous for children, but also various political materials - for example, those related to the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Despite criticism of this practice, the Turkish authorities also have the right to block resources on the Internet without a court order.

With the participation of Sergei Vitko

Moscow. April 5. site - The proposal of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region to ban children under 14 from using social networks restricts the freedoms of citizens and can provoke adolescents to aggressive behavior outside the Internet, said Leonid Levin, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications.

"The initiative of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region involves a ban on what is already prohibited by law - the dissemination of extremist and health-threatening information, and so on. In addition, many of the provisions of the bill run counter to decades of developing domestic and international practice. As presented, the bill restricts the freedoms of citizens and if it is implemented, the rules in the Russian segment of the Internet will be stricter than offline," Levin told reporters on Wednesday.

According to him, the restriction according to which only a person over 14 years old can be a user of the social network deserves special attention.

"This, in fact, contradicts all existing trends in the development of technology, when the Internet is actively "younger". More than 90% of people aged 12-17 go online every day," the head of the committee said.

He believes that "depriving a significant part of teenagers of the opportunity to use accounts on social networks will simply cut off their access to the usual communication tool that they are used to using not only for entertainment purposes, but also for educational purposes."

"A de facto ban on communication will only provoke teens' interest in circumventing bans or aggressive behavior off the Internet," Levin added.

As for the mandatory submission of passport data to administrators of social networks, the committee chairman notes that the question arises whether the authors of the bill represent the nature and amount of additional costs that will be necessary to ensure the reliability of storing such colossal amounts of information.

"The current anti-terrorist legislation already contains quite serious requirements of this kind, which seem to a number of companies and experts even redundant," Levin recalled.

In addition, "numerous fines provided for non-compliance with the rules will encourage people to simply stop using social networks and start using alternative platforms for communication - instant messengers, microblogs and other Internet features," the parliamentarian noted.

"Speaking of any changes in this area, I would draw the attention of colleagues at the fourth media forum of the All-Russian Popular Front held in St. Petersburg, which emphasized that the existing restrictions on the Internet are enough," Levin also said.

Earlier, the Izvestia newspaper reported that the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region had developed a draft law "On the legal regulation of the activities of social networks", according to which, when registering, you will have to provide passport data, and children under 14 will be banned from entering social networks altogether.