minipliny:

Demonstrators, with a poster on the right reading “internet is our only chance,” attend the Free Internet rally in response to a bill making its way through parliament calling for all internet traffic to be routed through servers in Russia— making VPNs (virtual private networks) ineffective, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 10, 2019.

Russia has significantly expanded laws and regulations tightening control over internet infrastructure, online content, and the privacy of communications, Human Rights Watch said today. If carried out to their full restrictive potential, the new measures will severely undermine the ability of people in Russia to exercise their human rights online, including freedom of expression and freedom of access to information.

“Russian authorities’ approach to the internet rests on two pillars: control and increasing isolation from the World Wide Web,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government has built up an entire arsenal of tools to reign over information, internet users, and communications networks.”

New laws and regulations adopted in the past two years expanded the authorities’ already significant capacity to filter and block internet content automatically, no longer depending on providers’ cooperation to implement the block. The 2019 “sovereign internet” law requires internet service providers (ISPs) to install equipment that allows authorities to circumvent providers and automatically block content the government has banned and reroute internet traffic themselves.

A 2018 law introduces fines for search engines providing access to proxy services, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), that allow a user access to banned content or provide instructions for gaining access to such content. Regulations adopted in 2019 require VPNs and search engine operators to promptly block access to the websites on the list maintained by the federal government’s informational system, which includes a regularly updated list of officially banned sites.

The past two years have also seen legislative incursions into the privacy of mobile communications. In July 2018, amendments to existing counterterrorism legislation entered into force that require telecommunications and internet companies registered with Russian authorities as “information dissemination organizers,” for example, messenger apps and social media, to store and share information about users without a court order.

The amendments build on previous data localization laws, which require companies processing the personal data of Russian citizens to store private data of internet and mobile app users in Russia and hand the information over to security services upon request. In 2019, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) required these companies to install special equipment giving the FSB automatic access to their information systems and encryption keys to decrypt user communications without authorization through any judicial process.

Legislators have justified these rules by citing a need to protect state security, the Russian internet, and the privacy of Russian users. In reality, these requirements facilitate mass censorship and blanket surveillance, introduce non-transparent content-blocking procedures and endanger the security and confidentiality of people’s communications online, Human Rights Watch said. – Human Rights Watch