Foreign IT giants to be punished with ad ban, payment blocking for lacking branches in Russia - bill co-author
MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - A bill compelling major foreign IT companies to have branches in Russia will envisage economic sanctions, up to the blocking of payments, the bill's co-author, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communication Alexander Khinshtein, said.
"Our bill will compel the owners of major information resources with a daily Russian audience exceeding 500,000 to open offices (branches) which will fully represent their interests and bear responsibility for their activity, in particular, with the authorities and in court. We plan to submit the bill to the State Duma in the near future," Khinshtein said on Telegram.
As Interfax has been told at the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communication, the bill will be submitted to the State Duma as early as next week.
The bill will envisage additional penalties for failure to comply with the new norm, such as a ban on the Internet resource advertising, a ban on placing advertisements on the resource, a ban on payments to the resource, and a ban on gathering and the transborder transfer of personal data by the violator, he said.
"All these measures absolutely do not infringe on the interests of Russian users and do not hinder interaction with this resource, however, they create economic incentives for IT giants to comply with our laws," Khinshtein said.
Certain countries, among them Turkey, already use such methods to prompt the opening of branches of large IT corporations in their territory, he said.
Khinshtein explained the need for opening branches of major IT companies in Russia with abuse of "their monopoly position."
"Above all, this concerns the dissemination of the most socially dangerous information: child pornography and terrorist and extremist propaganda. It is practically impossible to lay claims against the violators. IT giants don't have offices in Russia; at best, they set up 'subsidiaries' that bear no liability for the activity or policy of parent holdings," he said.
Khinshtein said earlier that the bill would apply not only to foreign Internet resources, but also to major technological companies. He did not rule out that the State Duma might adopt the bill by the end of the current spring session.
"We will try to accomplish this before the end of the spring session, being aware of its full significance and importance, but we still think that a deadline at the expense of quality isn't the right position. The fabric we are dealing with is too subtle, of too much significance and importance for us to take risks and experiment, prescribe norms that are clearly unfeasible or too complex to implement," Khinshtein said.
"A Telegram 2.0 story, the state is definitely not going to repeat that, at least the relevant State Duma committee is definitely not doing it," he said.