Report: Duma may vote for social nets control bill Thu in 1 read

MOSCOW, Jul 19 (PRIME) -- The information policy committee of Russia’s State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, has recommended approving a bill on regulation of social networks in the first out of three mandatory readings on Thursday, business daily Vedomosti reported late on Tuesday.

“It seems important to support the bill in the first reading to weigh it later together with us, deputies, experts, industry companies,” the committee’s head Leonid Levin said.

The bill was submitted earlier in July and concerns organizers of information distribution with audience of more than 2 million people. Such companies must delete information aimed at propaganda of war, national or religious loathing, illegal or unreliable information within 24 hours.

The document stipulates fines for a refusal to delete such content from 3 million to 5 million rubles for individuals and from 30 million to 50 million rubles for companies.

The government recommended rewriting the bill. Levin said that the committee also has a number of objections to the bill’s current wording.

The German Bundestag adopted a similar law in June and obliged social networks to erase the content found illegal, whipping up ethnic hostility, or containing defamation.

(59.3705 rubles – U.S. $1)

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