The State Duma is considering amendments to the legislation, simplifying the blocking of "mirrors" of prohibited sites
Today, March 17, the State Duma of the Russian Federation was supposed to consider in its first reading amendments to the laws “On Information ...”, which will quickly block the “mirrors” of websites that violate the law, according to Izvestia. These measures are necessary for the prompt entry into the register of prohibited sites of Roskomnadzor of “mirrors” of previously blocked resources without a trial.
The regulator was faced with the fact that after adding a resource to the list of prohibited sites, the latter rather quickly has a “mirror” under the changed domain name, formally another site. Under existing legislation, for blocking it is necessary to initiate the same procedures as for the main resource. However, the State Duma’s legal department saw a serious flaw in the new method of dealing with prohibited sites, which negates the whole point of the amendments.
According to the idea of the legislators, amendments to the laws “On Information ...” should allow interested departments to block “mirrors” sites by court order, without its decision.
A court order is a working legal document, which can be obtained without court hearings and bringing parties to them. It was this fact that formed the basis of the idea of allowing Roskomnadzor to block “mirrors” by a court order.
The legal department of the State Duma found vulnerability in the mechanism of action of a court order. Its legitimacy "the injured party" will be able to challenge a written appeal to the court, which expresses disagreement with the document. Such an appeal automatically cancels the action of the court order and returns the regulatory authorities to the initial position from which the decision to block should be made through the court.
Lawyers say that the court order as a legal document for such situations is not suitable. “The court order is designed to resolve cases in which the requirements are almost indisputable. This, for example, the collection of utility payments arrears. Here, the status of the site will be determined by experts whose opinions can be challenged, ”said Anna Butyrina, chairman of the Moscow City Bar Association.
The only caveat: to submit an application to the court, the owner of a blocked resource will have to provide their real personal data, which can serve as a balancing factor. Consequently, the practice of using court orders to block will be beneficial only to those site owners whose resources will be entered into the Roskomnadzor registry by mistake.