Business goes searching – Kommersant FM

Roskomnadzor will block pirated resources for content containing propaganda of non-traditional relationships. Copyright holders decided to help the department. As Vedomosti clarifies, the new mechanism combines data from two registers. The first contains prohibited materials and is maintained by the RKN. And copyright holders compile a list of links to pirated content. And if there is LGBT propaganda among them, the data will be sent to the department, and the site will be blocked.

Alexey Byrdin, CEO of the Internet Video Association, spoke in more detail about this scheme: “Roskomnadzor has a mechanism by which it blocks individual links with identified prohibited information. From December 2022, the promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships, for example in the form of a film or TV series, is prohibited. But in order to block such content, Roskomnadzor must find it. He can do this independently or by involving subordinate structures.

On behalf of the copyright holders, we proposed using our already established and well-functioning system; it monitors pirate sites on a large scale to identify specific cases. There are only a few of them so far, the number of content units themselves is one and a half dozen – but this is at least something.

We do not have a procedure for blocking pirated sites simply because they are pirated, that’s what the government decided. This is all done based on statements or claims from copyright holders. It’s not Roskomnadzor that’s running after the pirates, it’s us. RKN cannot block, it has no legal mechanism. We show him, we look for him.”

Until now, only legal services have been held accountable for violating the law on LGBT propaganda. Among them are Kinopoisk, Premier, Start, Tricolor and ivi. Most often, we are talking about incorrect age marking; according to the law, “non-traditional sexual relations” cannot be shown to minors. The fact that business has adopted this tool is an alarming sign, says managing partner of the College of Media Lawyers Fedor Kravchenko:

“This is probably one of the first cases when a business is trying to use the information special forces – Roskomnadzor – and its blocking mechanisms in their business interests. It is beneficial for the state to attract business, because Roskomnadzor will be able to report that it has blocked thousands of resources, and at the same time, business associations will only support it, and not protest, as in a situation when it will look for LGBT people in the information media, where there are many legal video services with many relatively harmless films.

This is beneficial for business, since, most likely, the RKN gave some kind of indirect signal that they will implement everything faster and easier than the systemic mechanisms for combating Internet piracy. It is possible that this practice will expand, taking advantage of the fact that Russian legislation not only on LGBT people, but also on the fight against extremism has such vague boundaries that almost any resources can be recognized as violators and blocked arbitrarily. Business will find this a convenient tool for fighting those who violate its interests.”

Violation of the law on LGBT propaganda faces a fine of 400 thousand rubles. for individuals, 800 thousand rubles. — for officials, up to 5 million rubles. – for legal entities.

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Ilya Sizov