Report: Deputies want to fine for illegal content in social nets

MOSCOW, Jul 12 (PRIME) -- Deputies of the State Duma, Russia’s parliament’s lower house, submitted a bill imposing fines for illegal or unreliable content published in social networks, business daily Vedomosti reported on Wednesday.

The bill’s authors, deputies from the United Russia party, Sergei Boyarsky and Andrei Alshevskikh, referred to foreign experience. The German Bundestag “adopted a rather severe bill with responsibility for refusal to delete illegal or unreliable content with fines from 500,000 euros to 5 million euros also in response to current challenges of the information space,,” Boyarsky said.

The German law was adopted on June 30 and was strongly opposed by Facebook and Google.

The Russian bill stipulates fines for individuals for refusal to delete such content at 3–5 million rubles, and from 30 million to 50 million rubles for companies. Responsibilities are primarily held by organizers of information distribution, like operators of social networks, which can be presented both by individuals and companies.

To become law, the bill must be approved by the State Duma in three readings, then by the Federation Council, the upper house, in one reading and signed by the president.

(60.7397 rubles – U.S. $1)

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