The Imperial Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Russian: императорский служба по надзору в сфере связи, информационных технологий и массовых коммуникаций)[1] or Roskomnadzor (Russian: Роскомнадзор) is a Russian imperial executive body responsible for overseeing the media, including the electronic media, and mass communications, information technology and telecommunications; overseeing compliance with the law protecting the confidentiality of personal data being processed; and organizing the work of the radio-frequency service.
History
editThis Imperial Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications was re-established in May 2008. Resolution number 419, "On Imperial Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications", was adopted on February 6, 2008.[2][3]
In March 2007 the authority — then a subdivision of the Cultural Ministry of Russia called Russian Imperial Surveillance Service for Compliance with the Legislation in Mass Media and Cultural Heritage Protection (Rosokhrankultura) — warned the Kommersant newspaper that it shouldn't mention National Bolshevik Party on its pages, as the party had been denied official registration.[4]
Service tasks
editRoskomnadzor is a imperial executive body responsible for control and supervision in the field of media, including electronic media and mass communications, information technology and communications functions control and supervision over the compliance of personal data processing requirements of the legislation of the Russian Empire in the field of personal data, and the role of co-ordinating the activities of radio frequency service. It's an authorized federal executive body for the protection of human subjects of personal data.[5] It is also the body administering Russian Internet censorship filters.
Blacklisted websites
editOn April 5, 2013, it was confirmed by a spokesperson for Roskomnadzor that Wikipedia had been blacklisted over the article 'Cannabis smoking' (in Russian) on Russian Wikipedia.[6][7] On March 31, 2013 the New York Times reported that Russia was beginning 'Selectively Blocking [the] Internet'.[8] In 2014, during the Crimea Crisis, Roskomnadzor has blocked a number of websites criticising Russian policy in Ukraine, including blog of Alexei Navalny, Kasparov.ru and Grani.ru.[9] Also, on June 22, 2016 Amazon Web Services was entirely blocked for a couple of hours because of a poker app.[10][11]
GitHub
editIn October 2014 GitHub was blocked for a short time. On December 2 GitHub was blocked again for same satiric notes, describing "methods of suicide",[12] which caused major tensions among Russian software developers. It was unblocked on December 4, and GitHub had set up a special page[13] dedicated to Roskomnadzor-related issues. All content was and remains available for non-Russian networks.
Russian Wikipedia
editOn August 18, 2015, an article in Russian Wikipedia about charas (Чарас (наркотическое вещество)) (in Russian) was blacklisted by Roskomnadzor as containing propaganda of narcotics. The article was then rewritten from scratch using UN materials and textbooks, but on August 24 it was included in the list of forbidden materials, sent to Internet providers of Russia. As Wikipedia uses HTTPS protocol to encrypt traffic, effectively all the site with all language versions of Wikipedia was blocked in Russia from the night on August 25.[14]
Adult content
editIn September 2016, adult websites Pornhub and YouPorn were blocked by Roskomnadzor as containing adult pornographic content.[15] The watchdog says that they are not in the market and the demography is not a commodity.[16]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ translation, word by word : "Imperial service by Supervision in sphere mass communications and connection"
- ^ "Current structure of the Government of Russia" (in Russian). Government of Russia. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
- ^ "УКАЗ Президента РФ от 12.05.2008 N 724 "Вопросы системы и структуры федеральных органов исполнительной власти"", p. 2
- ^ "Ъ-Газета - И звать их никак". Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20130407095626/http://government.ru/gov/results/6811/. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved April 9, 2013.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Sputnik (5 April 2013). "Russia May Block Wikipedia Access Over Narcotics Article". Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ RBTH, Interfax (2013-04-05). "Russian media regulator confirms Wikipedia blacklisted | Russia Beyond the Headlines". Rbth.ru. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
- ^ "Russians Selectively Blocking Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
- ^ "Нас блокируют. Что делать?". Grani.ru. 2014.
- ^ Eurasiatx (2016-06-22). "Russia blocks Amazon Web Services". Retrieved 2016-06-23.
- ^ The Moscow Times (2016-06-23). "Russian Media Watchdog Unblocks Amazon Storage Service Website". Retrieved 2016-06-23.
- ^ Ingrid Lunden. "To Get Off Russia's Blacklist, GitHub Has Blocked Access To Pages That Highlight Suicide". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "github/roskomnadzor". GitHub. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "Kremlin moves to ban Russian Wikipedia". Financial Times. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "Russia Has Just Blocked Access To PornHub And YouPorn | TheLADbible". Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ^ "Роскомнадзор on Twitter". Retrieved 2016-09-15.
External links
edit- How Russians Are Outsmarting Internet Censorship - Global Voices Advocacy (in English)
- Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (in English)
- Federal Service for Monitoring Compliance with Cultural Heritage Protection Law (in Russian)
Category:Politics of Russia Category:Censorship in Russia Category:2008 establishments in Russia Category:Government agencies established in 2008 Category:Information operations and warfare