The relevant State Duma committee approved punishment for trash streams and data leaks

The State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation on Monday recommended adopting in the first reading amendments on administrative and criminal penalties for trash streams and leaks of personal data. On the bill on leaks, the government and the Supreme Court made a number of comments in their reviews, but the deputies promised to finalize the initiatives for the second reading.

United Russia (UR) considers introducing penalties for trash streams and increasing responsibility for leaking personal data to be among its priorities for the spring session. Let us remind you that a group of United Russia deputies and senators introduced amendments to the Administrative (Administrative Code) and Criminal (Criminal Code) codes on liability for leakage of personal data on December 4.

According to changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses, the maximum fine for legal entities that have leaked data will be from 0.1% to 3% of revenue for the calendar year, but not more than 500 million rubles. Officials for this face a fine of up to 2 million rubles, individuals – up to 400 thousand. Moreover, the amounts of fines are differentiated depending on the number of persons whose data was leaked. Liability is also being introduced for failure to comply with the requirements for notifying Roskomnadzor about leaks: up to 100 thousand rubles. for citizens, up to 800 thousand for officials and up to 3 million for legal entities.

The authors propose to supplement the Criminal Code with a new article 272.1, which establishes liability for the illegal use, transfer, collection and storage of personal data, as well as for the creation of resources for the illegal storage of such information.

For the transfer of data abroad for their sale, penalties of up to eight years in prison are provided. If the leak causes harm to the life and health of citizens, the perpetrators will face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The government made a number of comments in its response. In particular, questions arose regarding the wording “an array of data, regardless of form, content and characteristics,” which, according to the Cabinet of Ministers, “does not meet the requirements of clarity and precision and may lead to ambiguous law enforcement practice.” The review also speaks of the need to differentiate the scope of application of the new norm and Art. 137 of the Criminal Code, which provides for liability for the illegal collection or dissemination of information about the private life of a person that constitutes his personal or family secret. The Supreme Court in its review also expressed concern about possible competition between norms.

Co-author of the projects Dmitry Vyatkin (ER) said that “there are hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of citizens whose personal data ends up in illegal circulation,” as a result “we see a serious increase in the number of crimes using information systems.” The deputy proposed to take into account the comments of the government and the Supreme Court when finalizing the bills for the second reading.

The question arose only from deputy Anzhelika Glazkova (Communist Party of the Russian Federation): she was interested in “whether the government is planning any other measures to identify violators, in addition to increasing responsibility.” Mr. Vyatkin agreed that legislative measures alone cannot solve this problem and “coordination of the efforts of various departments is necessary.” When voting, Mrs. Glazkova and Vyacheslav Markhaev (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) abstained, and all other members of the committee supported the bills.

Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code on liability for trash streams were submitted to the Duma on December 7 by a group of deputies from all factions and senators. A day later, a basic bill was introduced – amendments to the laws “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” and “On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development.”

It proposes that prohibited information include “photo and video materials depicting illegal acts committed with cruelty, their consequences, and calls for the commission of these acts.”

“Trash streamers, using the Internet, organize public live broadcasts during which acts of cruelty, sadism, bullying, and torture are committed for the victim in order to earn money from donations and increase their audience,” the authors point out in the explanatory note. note.

Co-author of the projects, first deputy chairman of the committee on legislation Irina Pankina (ER) recalled that the initiatives were developed on behalf of the president in order to protect citizens, primarily minors, from the destructive impact of trash streams: “In legal terms, from public demonstration of the commission of a crime through Media and the Internet.”

Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses introduce fines from 200 thousand to 600 thousand rubles. for citizens and from 300 thousand to 700 thousand rubles. for officials for disseminating such information. The confiscation of equipment for its production is also envisaged. Changes in the Criminal Code transfer the organization of trash streams to the category of aggravating circumstances. At the same time, liability for a number of crimes is being tightened (murder, intentional bodily harm, beatings, torture, threat of murder or serious bodily harm, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, use of slave labor), if they were accompanied by broadcast on the network.

The deputies did not have any questions this time, but deputies Glazkova and Markhaev still abstained from voting on amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences, and supported the changes to the Criminal Code.

Ksenia Veretennikova