The bill on regulation of recommender services of online platforms is submitted to the State Duma after long discussions
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A bill on the regulation of recommendation services of online platforms, which has been developed over the past three years, has been submitted to the State Duma. In accordance with it, social networks, video hosting sites, online cinemas, search engines and marketplaces should not allow the use of recommender algorithms to distribute information prohibited in Russia. In the event of a violation, Roskomnadzor may require the services to have access to the operation of the relevant software in order to check it, as well as initiate blocking of the resource. The initiative may primarily affect foreign platforms that do not comply with the requirements for the removal of illegal information.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the project amendments to the law “On Information”, developed by Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, and submitted to the State Duma on June 23. It follows from it that all owners of information resources using recommender algorithms should not allow their use to disseminate information that violates the law, and also inform users about the use of algorithms.
It follows from the document that the rules for the use of recommender technologies by resources should contain a description of the processes and methods and methods for collecting, systematizing and analyzing information on the basis of which the algorithms work.
The owners of information resources will have to publish these rules on the portals. If the resource does not inform users about the use of algorithms, or if these technologies are used to disseminate information that violates the law, Roskomnadzor may request the owner of the service access to “software and hardware” to verify them.
If violations are found, the service owner will have to eliminate them within 10 days. Otherwise, Roskomnadzor will first send the resource a ban on the use of recommender technologies, and if the requirements are not met, it will initiate a block. Access to the service can be resumed within 10 days after the regulator receives a notification about the elimination of violations. These requirements, it follows from the document, will not apply to state information systems and state bodies. If adopted, the bill will enter into force on October 1, its implementation will require 24 million rubles from the budget in 2024-2026.
Regulation of recommendation services has been discussed since 2021 (see Kommersant of October 15). Initially, the deputies justified its necessity by the fact that content selected on the basis of recommendation algorithms on Facebook, Instagram (blocked in Russia, owned by Meta, which, by managing these sites, is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned), YouTube and other resources, increases the risks of social conflicts.
Now, recommendation algorithms are used by almost any sites that provide content based on the analysis of preference data. This, in particular, can be about search engines. Both Yandex and Google form search results based on user actions – however, personalization functions can be disabled in the account settings.
In one of the preliminary versions of the document, it was proposed to oblige the owners of information resources to provide users with the opportunity to “completely or partially” refuse to use recommender technologies. The initiative was opposed at various times by the owners of social networks and search engines, including VK and Yandex (see “Kommersant” of May 27), online cinemas, as well as startups developing recommendation algorithms (see “Kommersant” of July 18).
The interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the discussion of the project, says that it was decided to exclude the provision on the appearance of a button in services that allows users to disable recommender algorithms in services from the final version of the bill.
“Various scenarios were considered, and as a result of discussions, the participants came to a common decision that the appearance of such a button would cause inconvenience to users of services, since, in fact, the work of all online services from marketplaces to search engines and online cinemas is based on the recommendations,”— the source explained to Kommersant.
Aleksey Byrdin, director general of the Internet Video Association, says that at the stage of project development, market participants discussed with the authors of the initiative the amount of information about the work of recommender algorithms that should be published in this document. “We are talking about the general rules and logic of recommender algorithms, it does not involve the placement of technical information that is valuable for service owners, that is, there is no risk that know-how will be disclosed in the rules,” says Mr. Byrdin.
According to the bill, the owner of a site with a recommender algorithm must prevent the use of technologies that “violate the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations,” but what this means in practice is unclear, says Ekaterina Abashina, a lawyer for the Moscow CCA DBA and Partners. The initiative, according to her, provides another possible basis for blocking sites to existing ones, for example, by a court decision and at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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