New Iron Curtain may be draped over Russian Internet

Russian Internet users may soon need to learn from those living in China if they want to continue having access to all the Internet has to offer. The Russian government is looking into expanding its laws against extremism to cover the Internet, and the result could be that websites and ISPs will be required adhere to the same strict rules currently in place for print media in the country. Unsurprisingly, the proposal has sparked criticism from rights activists who have concerns about widespread censorship of the Internet inside Russia.

The change would come in the form of a legal amendment to the country's current laws against extremism. An official at the Russian prosecutor's general office, Vyacheslav Sizov, told the Russian-language newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta that any web site that is determined to host what he terms "extremist material" would be blocked from being accessible from within the Russian Federation. Given the Putin government's history with the media, "extremist material" may be very broadly interpreted as any content unfriendly to the interests of the Russian government.

Print (and television) media in Russia is already under either official or unofficial government control, leaving the Internet as the last frontier free of government scrutiny. "It is difficult to find anyone who is not against extremism but it depends on how the law is used," Center of Journalism in Extreme Situations director Oleg Panfilov told the AFP in response to the news. Panfilov noted that the government has used the law "selectively" in the past, but that it's still worrisome when the government tries to expand the law into new areas.

Of course, Russia isn't the first to decide that "extreme" information should be kept away from the eyes of citizens—last November, the EU unveiled a proposal that would allow European courts to sentence individuals for "inciting terrorism" over the web. Sites that encourage violence, bomb-making instructions, or disseminate "terrorist propaganda" would all face shut down by ISPs hosting them. Again, critics were uneasy about the balance between free speech and public security, and questioned how effective such a law would be. Given the vagueness of "extremism," some worry that Russia could easily use it as an excuse to ban any topic that government officials aren't fond of, like China does with topics related to Tibetan protesters and Tiananmen Square.
ars technica

Boy them Russians, they don't even take it with lubricant.
If you ask me, sheep deserve their slaughter