State Duma approves bill on messenger regulation, ombudsman scolds

MOSCOW, Jul 21 (PRIME) -- Russia’s State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, approved on Friday the third and final reading of a bill obliging messengers to identify users by phone number on the basis of a contract signed by services with mobile operators, but Internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev said the initiative will become a tool to exert pressure on messengers.

The bill forces messengers to refuse users in services in case of a lack of identification. The messengers that are owned by Russian companies or citizens can identify users themselves via subscriber numbers without signing a contract with connection operators.

“This selective law-application will be no more than a mechanism of suppression,” Marinichev said, adding that it will be technically impossible to implement the idea.

It is still unclear what position messengers will find themselves in and how they will implement the law and enter into contract relations with connection operators, he said.

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