During the autumn session, the State Duma of the Russian Federation is going to consider issues related to combating crime on the Internet. In particular, on the establishment of responsibility for the dissemination of false information on blogs and on pages of social networks.
In the near future, the deputies of United Russia are planning to submit to the State Duma a bill on libel on the Internet. It will be aimed at combating anonymous statements on the Internet, which contain unsubstantiated information that discredits the honor and dignity of other people, including government officials.
As noted in the State Duma, this will allow Russia to come closer to building a civilized information society. According to the deputy Anton Zharkov, deliberately false information about people or organizations is published on the Internet very often, which can cause them serious harm in life. For such illegal anonymous statements, it is possible that administrative and even criminal liability will be established.
Moreover, anonymity does not at all insure the culprit from punishment. Nicknames on the Internet will not be an obstacle to investigation and justice.
Serious preparations are currently underway for such changes in legislation. International experience in combating cybercrime is studied and consultations are held with experts in this field. After all, the Internet should still remain a free platform where people can exchange opinions and at the same time not spread knowingly false and dangerous information.
At the same time, it is also planned to discuss this idea in the Duma among experts, representatives of public organizations and the Internet community, lawyers and bloggers. According to the deputy Vladimir Burmatov, only in this way it is possible to build an expedient and realizable mechanism of protection against libel on the World Wide Web. Moreover, the broader and open the discussions on this topic, the more likely it is to get a high-quality draft law at the end.
