PRESS: Ministry, antitrust oppose prioritizing domestic traffic

MOSCOW, Apr 30 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Digital Development Ministry and the Federal Antimonopoly Service have disagreed with a suggestion to prioritize traffic of domestic Internet resources during the coronavirus lockdown, business daily Kommersant reported on Thursday.

“Prioritization of traffic of domestic Internet resources will infringe principles of network neutrality,” the daily reported quoting the ministry’s letter to the initiative’s author deputy Anton Gorelkin, who proposed in March to give preference to national resources, as well as to foreign ones that follow the country’s laws.

The antitrust watchdog’s Director Igor Artemyev said the authority does not see the necessity of prioritizing traffic of certain suppliers of content and services.

Network neutrality bans providers from blocking websites on their own or discriminate any Internet traffic, Artemyev said.

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