The Russian lower house's information policy committee has received a request from the national communications watchdog to protect Russians from censorship on foreign online platforms and is already working on relevant sanctions, the head of the committee, Alexander Khinshtein, told Sputnik on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2020) The Russian lower house's information policy committee has received a request from the national communications watchdog to protect Russians from censorship on foreign online platforms and is already working on relevant sanctions, the head of the committee, Alexander Khinshtein, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
"The committee has received such a request from [Russian watchdog] Roskomnadzor. The problem certainly deserves serious attention. We share concerns of our colleagues from Roskomnadzor ... The Russian legislation currently envisions no sanctions for such violations of constitutional rights, this is the problem. The committee has stared working on these measures. It is too early to say anything about the exact format, there have been various proposals, from slowing down traffic to introducing new kinds of administrative liability and major fines," Khinshtein said.
The Russian constitution forbids any censorship, and guarantees the right to freely obtain, produce and spread information through any legitimate method, the lawmaker noted, slamming removal of accounts and blocking of applications as a gross violation of constitutional guarantees.
