social networks on the choice between self-censorship and millions of fines

The State Duma adopted in the third reading law on fines for social networks in the amount of up to eight million rubles for failure to remove content prohibited in the Russian Federation or removal of legal content.

The bill was introduced back in 2017, but has only recently been significantly revised and supplemented.

According to the new version of the law, from September 1, the following sanctions will apply to owners of social networks, the largest of which is eight million rubles:

Failure by the owner of a social network to comply with the instructions of Roskomnadzor on monitoring the social network in order to identify information confusingly similar to information, measures to remove which the owner of this or another social network is obliged to take on the basis of a previously sent request or notification of the specified federal body – entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of 100 thousand to 200 thousand rubles; for officials – from 500 thousand to 800 thousand rubles; for legal entities – from four million to six million rubles.

Failure to submit or untimely submission in Roskomnadzor data that allow identifying the owner of the news aggregator, the owner of the audiovisual service, the owner of the social network or the owner of the ads service, and (or) other information necessary for maintaining the register of news service, the register of social networks or the register of announcement services, or present The specified body of obviously inaccurate information – entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of 10 thousand to 30 thousand rubles; for legal entities – from 50 thousand to 300 thousand rubles.

Failure by the owner of the social network to fulfill the obligation to annually post a report on the results of consideration of applications submitted using an electronic form for sending applications about information disseminated in violation of the law, as well as on the results of monitoring the social network and (or) to place on the social network a document establishing the rules for using the social network, and (or) failure to fulfill the obligation to inform users of the social network about the changes made to these rules and (or) posting on the social network an electronic form for sending applications about information distributed in violation of the law in accordance with the requirements established by the Ro komnadzor, and (or) the obligation to post on a social network information about one’s surname and initials (for an individual) or name (for a legal entity) and (or) e-mail address, if the obligation to such placement is provided for by Federal Law No. 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles; for officials – from 200 thousand to 400 thousand rubles; for legal entities – from 600 thousand to one million rubles.

Failure by the owner of the social network to fulfill the obligation to monitor the social network and (or) take measures to restrict access to prohibited information, or failure by the owner of the social network to comply with the requirement of Roskomnadzor to cancel the measures to restrict access to user information taken by the owner of the social network – entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles; for officials – from 200 thousand to 400 thousand rubles; for legal entities – from 800 thousand to four million rubles. Repeated commission of an administrative offense – entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of 100 thousand to 200 thousand rubles; for officials – from 500 thousand to 800 thousand rubles; for legal entities – from four million to eight million rubles.

Under the regulation of Russian law fall under social networks that disseminate information in Russian or the languages ​​of the republics and peoples of Russia and place advertisements aimed at Russian users, whose daily audience in Russia exceeds 500 thousand people.

The owners of social networks are obliged to remove or restrict access to information, the dissemination of which is prohibited in Russia. Such information includes, in particular:

• child pornography or announcements about the involvement of minors as performers in pornographic events;
• information on the manufacture or receipt of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors;
• information about the methods of committing suicide, as well as calls to commit it;
• information about minors affected by crimes;
• information, the dissemination of which is prohibited by a court decision (online casinos, extremist materials, trade in fake diplomas, etc.).