Proposed Russian Law Opens Door To Iron Hand Of Online Censorship (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French on AVN.com 

A new bill passed overwhelmingly by Russia’s parliament, the Duma, would allow Russia to cut its entire domestic internet off from the rest of the world, allowing President Vladimir Putin’s government total control over the flow of information online, according to a report by the Associated Press. The bill, which still requires passage by the upper house of parliament as well as a presidential signature, has raised fears of new, iron-fisted censorship measures by Putin’s government.

The new bill was passed on Tuesday, less than a month after Putin signed a new law into effect that makes it a crime to show “disrespect” toward Russian society or to insult Putin and other government officials in online posts, as AVN.com reported.

But the new bill goes beyond simply criminalizing content the government doesn’t like. Instead, the bill would require that all Russian internet service providers route online traffic through domestic, Russian servers, which would allow the government to intercept and monitor all internet communications, according to the tech magazine ZDNet.