Russian human rights official wants new Internet control rules

Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights, said that Russia needed a new mechanism for Internet control, based on an international conventional approach, RIA Novosti reports.

He emphasized that there were cross-border problems, problems of time and anonymity. Modern methods for regulation of cyber space have lost their efficiency, in his words.

Russia formed the blacklist of websites (on children's pornography, suicide instructions and drugs) on November 1, 2012. The anti-piracy law was adopted on August 1, 2013, to block access to websites distributing films illegally. The Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications was authorized in late December 2013 to block access to websites with extremist calls without the court's permission. The parliament considers a bill to oblige bloggers to follow mass media rules if their blogs have over 3,000 readers.