November 3, 2010 at 15:39“The fight against extremism" as it is
About the so-called "fight against extremism" has not been heard only by some inquisitive Internet user. Recently, it has become a real trend in domestic law enforcement agencies.
Given the fact that the concept of “extremism” is rather vague, it is easy to hold accountable for it. Therefore, many of these processes are of a “political” nature. And most of them are related to the dissemination of information via the Internet.
Firstly, the opposition communicates and campaigns through the network, which is denied access to “normal” media like television and the press. Opposition parties and movements are, of course, one of the most frequent “targets” of such processes.
Secondly, everything that is said on the network remains in it. For an indefinite period of time. As you know, this greatly facilitates the task of “fighters”: you can even use the search for the most characteristic expressions. So under the rink of justice fall, in addition to the opposition, also intemperate adolescents.
At the end of August last year, while crossing the border of Abkhazia and Russia, the journalist Aleksey Ivashchenko underwent customs inspection , during which 26 gigabytes of information were copied from his computer to the “blanks” of customs officers. Customs officers studied personal correspondence, texts and photographs stored on the laptop’s hard drive. All attempts to object, of course, were thwarted, and when asked about the reasons for such close attention, customs officials replied that "they are looking for illegal information."
In January of this year, Ivashchenko tried to appeal these actions, however, the court refused to declare them illegal. In his statement in court, a customs representative said that customs officers allegedly have the right to such actions. The decree was named as the basis for this.Of the President No. 310 of March 23, 1995 “On measures to ensure coordinated actions of state authorities in the fight against manifestations of fascism and other forms of political extremism”.
This decree, indeed, provides for certain measures to combat the ideas of ethnic hatred, but, as often happens, it does not contain any specifics, ordering "to strengthen supervision", "strictly control", and so on, "expand" and "deepen". There is also an order to the State Customs Committee "to detain and hold to responsibility established by applicable law persons distributing printed materials, film, photo, audio and video materials aimed at promoting fascism, inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred", and also “take measures to seize such printed materials and materials”. It is this instruction, according to the Sochi customs officers, that gives them the right to poke their nose into other people's computers: after all, there may be "incitement to discord materials."
By the way, contrary to popular belief, there is no liability for the possession of such materials, even if they are included in the “extremist list”. Their massive distribution entails administrative liability under article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. However, very often people are prosecuted for such distribution under the infamous article 282 of the Criminal Code. Sometimes it seems that neither the police nor the prosecutors simply know any other normative acts in this area.
As for customs, it has a strictly defined area of activity specified in the Customs Code - this is customs regulation, which is “the establishment of procedures and rules, subject to which individuals exercise the right to move goods and vehicles across the customs border of the Russian Federation”. A product is a thing intended for sale, so in general, the attention of customs officers should not extend to those items that a person carries with him or sends across the border. With the exception of cases, their value exceeds a certain amount, or there are so many that there is reason to suspect that a “commercial batch” intended for sale (that is, again, “goods”) is being transported.
The fact that the laptop contains personal data is already a sufficient reason not to consider it a “product”. And the information in it is not a thing at all, and, accordingly, is also not a “product”. So in other people's electronic devices that the owner carries across the border, customs officers have nothing to do. The mentioned decree simply gave them an excuse to “interfere with someone else’s private life (as it were legally”) (and this is a criminal offense, by the way).
However, in October, Ivashchenko appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, having passed all the necessary Russian courts. Well, let's hope that the ECHR will say its weighty word in this matter.
The article has already mentioned the " extremist list ." This document, which is maintained by the Ministry of Justice, introducing into it those materials that were recognized as "extremist" by the decisions of the Russian courts. Since there are a lot of courts in Russia, and they do not coordinate their activities, the “list” contains several dozens of materials with the same names - perhaps these are the same books and articles that have been re-entered into it. In addition, the names of the books may coincide, that is, a single name for identification is clearly not enough.
But when the courts invade the computer sphere, confusion and reeling generally begins. Periodically, on the RuNet, waves of “reposts” are launched about especially outstanding materials included in the “list”, such as “files: 13ng.jpg; 14s.jpg; 15ng.jpg ”and the like. On such illustrative examples, those problems with the description of materials that our courts experience are easily visible. But when the court prohibits not a specific material, but the site on which it is located, then in its decision it does not identify materials recognized as extremist at all, but in fact prohibits a specific Internet address. There are already about a dozen such sites in the “list”, and there will probably be even more.
And such bans are already contrary to law. Federal law“On countering extremist activity” defines extremist materials as “documents intended for publication or information on other media calling for extremist activities or justifying or justifying the need for such activities, including the work of the leaders of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany and the fascist party of Italy , publications substantiating or justifying national and / or racial superiority or justifying practices fulfillment of military or other crimes aimed at the complete or partial destruction of any ethnic, social, racial, national or religious group. "
In accordance with the first articleOf the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information”, “information” is “information (messages, data) regardless of the form of their presentation,” and a document is “information recorded on a physical medium by documenting information with the details allowing to determine such information or, in cases established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, its material carrier. ” However, when a site is banned, a domain name that is neither a "document" nor a "information" is actually prohibited.
From article 1484The Civil Code follows that it constitutes a “way of addressing”. In fact, a domain is a service that different people can use at different times. And the law “On countering extremist activity” does not provide for a ban on using the service, even if the author of extremist materials used to address it before.
In general, as practice shows, domestic law enforcement agencies were not ready to meet the fascinating computer world.
Given the fact that the concept of “extremism” is rather vague, it is easy to hold accountable for it. Therefore, many of these processes are of a “political” nature. And most of them are related to the dissemination of information via the Internet.
There are several objective reasons for this.
Firstly, the opposition communicates and campaigns through the network, which is denied access to “normal” media like television and the press. Opposition parties and movements are, of course, one of the most frequent “targets” of such processes.
Secondly, everything that is said on the network remains in it. For an indefinite period of time. As you know, this greatly facilitates the task of “fighters”: you can even use the search for the most characteristic expressions. So under the rink of justice fall, in addition to the opposition, also intemperate adolescents.
Customs takes the go
At the end of August last year, while crossing the border of Abkhazia and Russia, the journalist Aleksey Ivashchenko underwent customs inspection , during which 26 gigabytes of information were copied from his computer to the “blanks” of customs officers. Customs officers studied personal correspondence, texts and photographs stored on the laptop’s hard drive. All attempts to object, of course, were thwarted, and when asked about the reasons for such close attention, customs officials replied that "they are looking for illegal information."
In January of this year, Ivashchenko tried to appeal these actions, however, the court refused to declare them illegal. In his statement in court, a customs representative said that customs officers allegedly have the right to such actions. The decree was named as the basis for this.Of the President No. 310 of March 23, 1995 “On measures to ensure coordinated actions of state authorities in the fight against manifestations of fascism and other forms of political extremism”.
This decree, indeed, provides for certain measures to combat the ideas of ethnic hatred, but, as often happens, it does not contain any specifics, ordering "to strengthen supervision", "strictly control", and so on, "expand" and "deepen". There is also an order to the State Customs Committee "to detain and hold to responsibility established by applicable law persons distributing printed materials, film, photo, audio and video materials aimed at promoting fascism, inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred", and also “take measures to seize such printed materials and materials”. It is this instruction, according to the Sochi customs officers, that gives them the right to poke their nose into other people's computers: after all, there may be "incitement to discord materials."
By the way, contrary to popular belief, there is no liability for the possession of such materials, even if they are included in the “extremist list”. Their massive distribution entails administrative liability under article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. However, very often people are prosecuted for such distribution under the infamous article 282 of the Criminal Code. Sometimes it seems that neither the police nor the prosecutors simply know any other normative acts in this area.
As for customs, it has a strictly defined area of activity specified in the Customs Code - this is customs regulation, which is “the establishment of procedures and rules, subject to which individuals exercise the right to move goods and vehicles across the customs border of the Russian Federation”. A product is a thing intended for sale, so in general, the attention of customs officers should not extend to those items that a person carries with him or sends across the border. With the exception of cases, their value exceeds a certain amount, or there are so many that there is reason to suspect that a “commercial batch” intended for sale (that is, again, “goods”) is being transported.
The fact that the laptop contains personal data is already a sufficient reason not to consider it a “product”. And the information in it is not a thing at all, and, accordingly, is also not a “product”. So in other people's electronic devices that the owner carries across the border, customs officers have nothing to do. The mentioned decree simply gave them an excuse to “interfere with someone else’s private life (as it were legally”) (and this is a criminal offense, by the way).
However, in October, Ivashchenko appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, having passed all the necessary Russian courts. Well, let's hope that the ECHR will say its weighty word in this matter.
Forbid everything in bulk
The article has already mentioned the " extremist list ." This document, which is maintained by the Ministry of Justice, introducing into it those materials that were recognized as "extremist" by the decisions of the Russian courts. Since there are a lot of courts in Russia, and they do not coordinate their activities, the “list” contains several dozens of materials with the same names - perhaps these are the same books and articles that have been re-entered into it. In addition, the names of the books may coincide, that is, a single name for identification is clearly not enough.
But when the courts invade the computer sphere, confusion and reeling generally begins. Periodically, on the RuNet, waves of “reposts” are launched about especially outstanding materials included in the “list”, such as “files: 13ng.jpg; 14s.jpg; 15ng.jpg ”and the like. On such illustrative examples, those problems with the description of materials that our courts experience are easily visible. But when the court prohibits not a specific material, but the site on which it is located, then in its decision it does not identify materials recognized as extremist at all, but in fact prohibits a specific Internet address. There are already about a dozen such sites in the “list”, and there will probably be even more.
And such bans are already contrary to law. Federal law“On countering extremist activity” defines extremist materials as “documents intended for publication or information on other media calling for extremist activities or justifying or justifying the need for such activities, including the work of the leaders of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany and the fascist party of Italy , publications substantiating or justifying national and / or racial superiority or justifying practices fulfillment of military or other crimes aimed at the complete or partial destruction of any ethnic, social, racial, national or religious group. "
In accordance with the first articleOf the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information”, “information” is “information (messages, data) regardless of the form of their presentation,” and a document is “information recorded on a physical medium by documenting information with the details allowing to determine such information or, in cases established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, its material carrier. ” However, when a site is banned, a domain name that is neither a "document" nor a "information" is actually prohibited.
From article 1484The Civil Code follows that it constitutes a “way of addressing”. In fact, a domain is a service that different people can use at different times. And the law “On countering extremist activity” does not provide for a ban on using the service, even if the author of extremist materials used to address it before.
In general, as practice shows, domestic law enforcement agencies were not ready to meet the fascinating computer world.