Complementary orders of Roskomnadzor to the law "On news aggregators" entered into force

On Friday, February 3, Roskomnadzor published on its website orders to the law “On News Aggregators,” which entered into force today, February 6, 2017. The orders published by the regulator are aimed at approving the form and procedure for the requirement to stop the dissemination of false or false information by news aggregators.

The orders formalize the relationship between the regulator and aggregators and expand the agency’s ability to assess website traffic, as well as to make decisions on the removal of “false information” from public access.

In total, three documents were published and entered into force:

• Order dated December 5, 2016 N 306 Moscow (PDF) “On the approval of the Procedure for the functioning of the interaction system of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications with the owners of news aggregators”;
  
  
• Order of December 5, 2016 N 307 Moscow (PDF) “On approval of the Methodology for determining the number of users of programs for electronic computers, sites and (or) pages of sites on the Internet, which are used to process and disseminate news information in "Internet" per day ";
  
  
• Order of December 5, 2016 N 308 Moscow (PDF) “On approval of the form and procedure for sending by the authorized state bodies the requirement to take measures to stop the dissemination by the news aggregator of falsified socially significant information, unreliable socially significant news information under the guise of reliable messages, news information disseminated in violation of the laws of the Russian Federation ”;
  

Published orders finally consolidate the procedure for the interaction between the regulator and news sources or aggregators. Now, with clear instructions for interacting with information disseminators, the agency will be able to put online censorship through the removal of materials on stream.

Of greatest interest are orders No. 306 and No. 308 of December 5, 2016.

For example, according to the text of order No. 306, clause 9, Roskomnadzor “for the purpose of organizing interaction” on the part of the news aggregator can be provided with remote access to their systems with the transfer of logins and passwords :


Screenshot of the text of order No. 306

Also now, news aggregators will have to report for each fact of deleting or changing the disputed information to the ILV through a “personal account”. Including the provision of screenshots and other evidence of the execution of the order:


Screenshot of the text of order No. 306

As part of order No. 308 of December 5, 2016, it is clearly stated that Roskomnadzor will accept only reasonable claims from other state bodies (most likely from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and courts , approx.ed).

To remove information from public access / change it will be necessary not only to correctly draw up an application with the attached evidence of the placement of information of an unlawful nature. Moreover, the court’s decision is not necessary: ​​it can be replaced by any decision of another state authority, and of all the “evidence” only screenshots are required, which is clearly stated in paragraph 8 of order No. 308:


Screenshot of the text of order No. 308

Now, according to the order of Roskomnadzor, any Information from the news aggregator feed will be needed only:

• Correctly completed form (attached to the order);
• Signature of the head of the applicant state authority or his deputy;
• The decision of the state body that the information is falsified / false (a court decision is not necessary, but if available, is also taken by the ILV);
• The presence of an aggregator in the registry;
• Link to the page and screenshot.

In fact, with these orders, Roskomnadzor assigns to any state bodies the right to fulfill the function of courts and make decisions on what information is “falsified” and subject to censorship.