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The Russian legislature's lower house on Wednesday adopted a bill that, according to tech companies in the country, could lead to Internet censorship.

The bill, which includes amendments to several current laws, still needs to be signed and in the meanwhile Russian tech companies continue to protest the legislation, trying to influence the political process before the bill is formally adopted by the upper house.

The bill passed by Russia's lower house, the State Duma, aims to make it easier to block sites that host child pornography, promote drugs or provide instructions about how to commit suicide. But the Russian IT industry sees a basis for Internet censorship because it is unclear how the blocking procedure will work.

The industry is mainly protesting the bill because the State Duma has proposed to block websites through IP and DNS blockades.

Despite approval of the law, Wikipedia Russia, the initiator of the protests that decided to block access to its own site in protest Tuesday, is mildly positive.

"Our protests had an effect," said Vladimir Medeyko, director of the Russian Wikimedia foundation, in an email. Although the protest did not have the same effect as the online upheaval against SOPA in the U.S. (the bill was put on ice), there nevertheless was an impact, Medeyko said.

Even though the bill was passed by the State Duma, several significant amendments were introduced the night before the vote, Medeyko said. The definition of illegal content became much clearer, and the list of authorities who may decide which sites can be blacklisted became shorter, he said. The FSB, Russia's successor of the KGB, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were excluded from the list, he said. According to the latest draft of the law, Rostelecom, Russia's state-controlled telecommunications operator, is the only non-government body that can blacklist parts of Russia's Internet, said Medeyko.

In addition, the legislators agreed to include representatives of Wikipedia's parent organization, Wikimedia, in the working group overseeing the bill and its implementations, Medeyko said. This was a breakthrough, he said, since members of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), an NGO that represents the Russian IT industry, were rejected at an earlier stage.

However, representatives from RAEC, and possibly also Wikimedia representatives, are to be included in a working group from the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media that will look at possible amendments to the law, Medeyko said.

He also emphasized that several key state officers, including Russian premier Dmitry Medvedev, explicitly stated that the Internet in Russia will remain "a territory of freedom," he said.

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Tech Companies Continue Protests After Russia Adopts Online 'censorship' Bill

Tineka Smith Published 13 July 2012

Russias legislative lower house adopted a new internet censorship bill that will allow the government to shut down any websites that has material it finds offensive.

According to news agency, Ria Novosti, websites that contain drug references, pornography, promote suicide or any ideas that might be "extremist" may be blacklisted.

A blacklist is already running with "extremist" materials banned from courts, some of which even include musical recordings and leaflets. The list has currently has around 1200 entries.

Websites that breach the law would have 24 hours to remove offensive material or face blacklisting. Internet service providers will also have to cooperate in blacklisting sites or they risk being blacklisted themselves.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a statement that the bill is taking Russia in a "troubling and dangerous direction."

"The world's experience with the Internet provides a clear lesson: a free and open Internet promotes economic growth and freedom; restricting the free flow of information is bad for consumers, businesses, and societies.

The FCC Chair explained that he had attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia where he met with government officials in talks of expanding broadband access and promoting the Internet as a strong source for innovation, improved public services, and economic growth.

"A free open internet is essential to meeting these goals in Russia, as in all countries," said Genachowski. "Growing economies everywhere promote peace and stability. I believe this legislation will stifle investment in broadband and impede innovations that could advance Russia's promising internet economy."

Some of the most popular websites in Russia like Wikipedia, LiveJournal, and the search engine Yandex, went on strike Tuesday, warning users that their freedom on the Internet was at risk.

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Russian Duma approves internet censorship bill

Wikipedia once again is diving into Internet politics.

The free encyclopedia on Tuesday temporarily shut down access to most of its Russian-language site in protest of proposed legal action in Russia that it says would result in Internet censorship.

Visitors to ru.wikipedia.org on Tuesday saw a black censorship bar over the Wikipedia logo and a message asking them to imagine a world without free access to knowledge.

In January, Wikipedia shuttered its English sites for 24 hours in protest of anti-piracy laws that were being discussed in the U.S. Congress. That action was cited as evidence of a new wave of political power for the technology and Internet industries. Google and others joined in that protest, which essentially derailed two anti-piracy bills in the United States.

The Russian Wikipedia site compares proposed amendments to an "On Information" law to China's hyper-restrictive firewall. If implemented, the changes to the law could result in access to Wikipedia being cut off permanently, the group says.

"Lobbyists and activists who support the given amendments are claiming that they are directed exclusively against content like child pornography 'and the like,' but according to presented reports and statements, a prototype of 'The Great Firewall of China' will be created in Russia," Wikipedia says in a statement on its site, which was translated from Russian. "The practice of implementing existing Russian laws suggests a high chance of a worse scenario, in which access to Wikipedia will be denied across the country.

"Given the precedent, there's a good chance access to Wikipedia will be denied across the country."

The bills, according to news reports, would allow the government to blacklist certain websites. The aim, the government says, is to protect Internet users from harmful content like child pornography and websites that promote substance abuse.

"The Russian bill currently under discussion in parliament seeks to introduce a non-governmental Internet watchdog, which would monitor the Web for potentially harmful content and request hosting companies to restrict access to the marked pages," reports RT.com, a Russian news site that receives government funding. "If this is not done, the page would be blacklisted. The bill also has stricter provisions for parental guidance ratings for content."

The updates do not have universal support in the Russian government, the news site says. The country's information minister, for example, has "voiced doubt" about the changes, saying they would be difficult to enforce.

Originally posted here:
Wikipedia fights Russia web censorship

Following Google's high-profile spat with China over censorship in 2010, the company has been mostly candid about its disagreements with the country's Internet policies. However, those comments have usually been tempered by the silent understanding that China must be dealt with in some fashion. But in a new interview, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt offers even more revealing insight into how the company views China and its future as a global technology player.

"I believe that ultimately censorship fails I personally believe that you cannot build a modern knowledge society with that kind of behavior, that is my opinion," Schmidt told Foreign Policy magazine. "I think most people at Google would agree with that. The natural next question is when [will China change], and no one knows the answer to that question. [But] in a long enough time period, do I think that this kind of regime approach will end? I think absolutely."

Schmidt's comments were made last week offstage during the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual gathering of global scholars, artists, experts and business leaders held in Aspen, Colorado. Schmidt's comments come amidst China's newfound popularity as Silicon Valley's hardware manufacturer of choice. China has also enjoyed new global influence as a technology hub as its local brands such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent rack up large chunks of market share in Asia versus Western competitors. But despite China's rise to tech prominence, Google's experience in the country has apparently changed the way it looks at the region.

"We argue strongly that you can't build a high-end, very sophisticated economy... with this kind of active censorship," Schmidt continued. "That is our view We believe in empowering people who care about freedom of expression."

This tension between China as a facilitator of tech innovation as well as the source of various human rights concerns was the focus of a recent Time magazine cover story titled "The Cult of Apple in China." Presently, China sales represent roughly 20 percent of the company's overall revenue, a staggering figure that has compelled Apple to become more aggressive in its efforts to cater to Chinese consumers while remaining sensitive to local human rights issues and factory conditions as the global community watches closely.

On the other end of the spectrum, Google's fortunes in the country appear nowhere near as robust. In fact, Schmidt extended his comments beyond the topic of censorship and painted a rather dark picture of China for the future.

"The evidence today is that Chinese attacks are primarily industrial espionage... It's primarily trade secrets that they're trying to steal, and then the human rights issues, that obviously they're trying to violate people's human rights," Schmidt said. "So those are the two things that we know about, but I'm sure that there will be others It's probably the case where the Chinese government will continue to make it difficult to use Google services The conflict there is at some basic level: We want that information [flowing] into China, and at some basic level the government doesn't want that to happen."

For more, see PCMag's Life Behind the Great Firewall of China slideshow below.

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Google's Schmidt Predicts End of China's Internet Firewall

If proposed amendments to a Russian law get passed, a wave of censorship could ripple through the country's Web sites including a complete closure of Wikipedia.

This is what Wikipedia in Russian looks like during the blackout. It says, "Imagine a world without free knowledge."

Wikipedia shut down for 24 hours, just six months ago, joining a massive Web protest in the U.S. over the proposed anti-piracy laws SOPA and PIPA. Now, it's stepping up again in a major Internet revolt against online censorship in Russia.

According to The Next Web, the Russian government is looking to amend a law called the "Act for Information." The proposed changes to the law could lead to sweeping censorship of the Internet, including the complete closure of Wikipedia in Russia.

Wikipedia posted a statement in Russian on its Web site, which The Next Web translated; this is what it says:

In addition to the proposed amendments to the "Act for Information," the government is also mulling over another bill that harkens back to the country's Soviet past with harsh censorship crackdowns. Under the draft bill, all Web sites that contain pornography or drug references, or that promote suicide or other "extremist ideas," will purportedly face blacklisting.

Russia isn't known as a Web-friendly country. Earlier this year, Reporters Without Borders listed it as an "Under Surveillance" country in its "Enemies of the Internet" report. And just last month, Russia came under scrutiny for proposing amendments to a U.N. treaty that could lead to censorship of citizens who use the Web to voice government opposition.

The Russian government is scheduled to decide whether to pass the proposed amendments on the "Act for Information" tomorrow.

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Wikipedia blackout in Russia to protest censorship