Russia's federal government wants higher fines on Internet providers for connecting users to banned websites

The Russian federal government has introduced legislation to the State Duma that would make it an administrative offense for Internet providers to connect customers to banned websites, setting fines as high as 100,000 rubles (about $1,560). Violations would be determined by Russian courts, the draft legislation proposes.

Currently, Russia prohibits access to several kinds of information online, including information about how to prepare and consume illegal drugs, methods of suicide, child pornography, extremism, certain types of hate speech, justifications of terrorism, incitements to participate in unlawful assemblies, and more. 

According to Russia's Internet regulations, websites that fail to remove banned content are added to Roskomnadzor's “out-load” list, which is a special database of prohibited websites. Internet operators are supposed to download this database two times a day, at 9 a.m. and at 9 p.m. Then the operators have to block the “out-load” webpages, so that their clients can’t access them. If someone tries to access a blocked website, they just see a page showing a notification that the website was blocked. It usually reads, “We are sorry for the inconvenience, but access to the requested page has been limited by the state authorities.”

Russia's current Internet regulations don't establish specific fines for noncompliance with Roskomnadzor's blocklist, and as a result police have utilized an older administrative code on license violations, when confronting Internet providers that continue to connect customers to banned websites. That administrative code allows fines of up to 40,000 rubles ($625), which the federal government now says is too little.

In 2015, there were 501 reported cases of noncompliance by Internet providers with Roskomnadzor's blocklist. In 488 of those cases, courts levied administrative fines.