Russia's State Duma has adopted a bill that will see search engines fined for offering links to VPNs and other anonymizers that have been banned in the country. Fines will also be handed out to search engines that fail to connect to a resource offering up-to-date information on what domains should be rendered inaccessible.

For the past several years, Russia has been attempting to censor the Internet by restricting access to a large range of sites. With thousands blocked, pirate sites are some of the main targets but any site with content objectionable to the state can find itself in the crosshairs.

As more blocks have been introduced, the response by many Internet users has been to circumvent them. For pirate sites, proxies and mirrors have been a key mechanism but increasingly citizens have turned to VPNs and other anonymizers that are able to skirt around any ban.

As a result, VPNs and anonymizers themselves have come under scrutiny, with authorities demanding that those operating in Russia register themselves with the state. Of course, many do not, which has led to a cat-and-mouse game.

Historically it’s been easy to find a VPN or similar service using search engines but the Russian Government has a new tool to make that harder. This week, following a third and final reading, the State Duma adopted a bill introducing fines for search engines that provide links to outlawed sites, VPNs and anonymization tools.

According to the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, failure of online services to stop publishing links to blocked information resources will result in fines of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles ($48 to $80) for citizens, up to 50,000 rubles ($800) for officials, and between 500,000 to 700,000 ($8,019 to $11,227) for legal entities.

In order to advise which sites and services are banned in the country, the Federal State Information System (FGIS) will provide access to an up-to-date database of blocked domains. Search engines will be required to connect to this system within 30 days and those who fail to do so will face fines similar to those detailed above.

TASS reports that the amendments are concomitant with the law on anonymizers adopted at the end of the spring session of the State Duma in 2017. This legislation requires owners and operators of VPN and anonymization systems to first register their identities with the authorities and then connect to the blocked sites register.

Those who fail to comply with the requirements can find themselves fined and placed on the blocked sites register, which is maintained by Russian telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor.

Source: Torrentfreak.com

The State Duma approved new fines for search engines

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MOSCOW, June 5. / TASS /. The State Duma at the meeting on Tuesday adopted in the third and final reading a bill introducing fines for operators of search Internet systems for issuing links to sites that have limited access to the territory of the Russian Federation. The authors of the initiative were MPs Maxim Kudryavtsev (United Russia), Nikolai Ryzhak ("Fair Russia") and Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party).

According to the adopted amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the failure of search engines to fulfill the obligation to stop issuing links to blocked information resources upon users' requests "will threaten a fine for citizens in the amount of 3 thousand to 5 thousand rubles, for officials - up to 50 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 500 thousand to 700 thousand rubles. "

Similar penalties are imposed for the operator's failure to perform the search for access to the Roskomnadzor information system containing a list of information on sites blocked in Russia.

The amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses are concomitant with the law on anonymizers adopted at the end of the spring session of the State Duma in 2017. This document prohibits the owners of information and telecommunications networks and information resources, through which access to prohibited sites in the Russian Federation, provide opportunities for viewing them.

Law on Anonymizers

The law on anonymizers provides that Roskomnadzor will create and maintain a federal state information system (FGIS) containing a black list of prohibited resources. Based on the appeal of law enforcement agencies, the agency will determine the provider, which allows the placement of software and hardware on the Internet access to banned information resources. This provider will be sent an electronic notification in Russian and English on the need to provide data to identify the owner of the anonymizer. Within three working days the provider will be obliged to send the relevant data.

Then Roskomnadzor will send an anonymizer a request to connect to the IPF, and the resource will have to do it in 30 days. At the request of the department, Internet search engines working in the Russian Federation will also be connected to the IPF.

After entering into the IPG anonymizer within three days will have to "ensure compliance with the ban on the possibility of using on the territory of the Russian Federation" programs and other technical means to gain access to prohibited sites, and the search engine - to stop issuing links to them. In case of non-compliance with the requirement, Roskomnadzor will block anonymizers.

At the same time, these norms will not apply to operators of state information systems, state bodies and local self-government bodies, as well as to "cases of using software and hardware access to information resources, which are restricted access," provided that the range of users of their owners in advance defined and the use of "is carried out for technological purposes to ensure the activities of the person carrying out the use," the law says.

The State Duma approved fines for failure to comply with the law on anonymizers

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MOSCOW, June 5 - RIA Novosti. The State Duma adopted in the third and final reading the law on fines for violating the ban on the use of anonymizers.

According to the document, for failure by the operator of the search system to perform the duty to obtain access to the Roskomnadzor registry, citizens will be fined five thousand rubles, officials - 50 thousand, and legal - in the amount of 500 thousand to 700 thousand rubles.

The same fines threaten operators for issuing links to blocked sites.

The document will come into force three months after its official publication.

Kaspersky warned about the risks of using untrusted VPN services
The law on the prohibition of anonymizers is in force since November last year. It obliges the owners of anonymizers and VPN-services to block access to resources that are on the black list of Roskomnadzor. Otherwise, the owners of the anonymizers will be blocked. In addition, operators of search engines should stop issuing links to prohibited resources.