The Ministry of Digital Development proposed to extend free access to significant information resources up to a week

The Ministry of Digital Development proposed to increase the time of using the service of free access to socially significant sites within the framework of the Accessible Internet project from 24 hours to seven days. Draft resolution published on the portal of projects of normative legal acts.

The Accessible Internet program provides free access to socially significant sites for mobile and fixed-line Internet users throughout Russia. You can use the service continuously for 24 hours, but if necessary, the time can be extended. The list of Roskomnadzor still includes only two socially significant web resources: “Gosuslugi” and “VKontakte”.

The Ministry of Digital Development proposes to increase the time of using the service from September 1 this year.

In the explanatory note, the authors of the initiative note the demand for this service: in the fourth quarter of 2022, the number of its connections by subscribers of the largest operators exceeded 83,550.

“The current limitation of the duration of free access to 24 hours requires adjustment, given the need for further popularization of socially significant information resources,” the document says.

The “Available Internet” program has been in effect since February 2022. To activate the service, you need to go to your personal account or mobile application of the operator (even with a zero balance, access is free), select the “Available (social) Internet” option, and then log in using your account at public services. While the option is active, other sites will not be available.

The initiative on free access to socially significant sites was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly in January 2020. The law on this was adopted in August 2021 based on the results of a pilot project that ran from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 G.