Vladimir Putin has signed a series of laws that give Russia new powers to American social media giants.
The reform package will allow Russia to block or limit sites that “discriminate” its means, as a component of a crusade to strengthen Russia’s “sovereignty” of the Internet that has raised fears of Chinese-style controls.
Twitter has lately referred to some Russian media as “state-affiliated media,” a resolution denounced through Moscow.
The One Moment Act introduces heavy fines for sites that continually do not remove prohibited content, which YouTube and Facebook have not achieved under Russian lawmakers.
Fines would be calculated up to 20 of the Russian company’s turnover last year.
Vladimir Putin, photographed at a new year-end assembly with Russian government officials last week, signed a package of reforms for Russia to block American social media giants.
Another law prohibits the disclosure of non-public knowledge of Russian security officials, documents that are leaked online and used through investigative hounds to track covert operations.
Earlier this month, investigator Bellingcat used theft records and other knowledge to identify an organization of suspected FSB agents accused of poisoning Alexei Navalny.
Navalny became ill in August and a German army laboratory discovered that he had been poisoned with Novichok, but Moscow denies it was a poisoned plot.
Another new legislation has brought criminal sentences of up to two years for online defamation as new regulations that would prohibit the financing of demonstrations through “foreign agents” and allow the prohibition of emergency meetings.
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