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Russia turns back the clock

by on25 April 2008

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Learns a bit from China about censorship


The Russian
government is considering expanding its laws against extremism to cover the Internet. This means that ISPs will have to submit to the same strict laws enforced on Russian print media and is being seen as a bid by the Kremlin to censor the Interweb under the guise of stopping terrorism.

A spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor's general office, Vyacheslav Sizov, told the Russian-language newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta that sites he thought were 'extremist' would be blocked. The law is similar to that which is being looked at in the E.U., however the way that the law has been used to control the print media indicates that 'extremist' is usually anything that disagrees with Tsar Putin. In print it has been used selectively to remove stories that embarrassed the government.

According to Ars Technica, while most people in Russia do not care if terrorist sites are blocked, there are more that are worried that the government could easily use it as an excuse to ban any topic that government officials don't want to talk about. Fortunately, Russian controls cannot be as extensive as those in China and most Russians will work out a way around them.

More here.

Last modified on 25 April 2008
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