On 1 November 2017 new art. 15.8 of the Federal Law “;On information, information technologies and information security” (hereinafter — the Law on Information) entered into force. It prohibits to provide access to forbidden websites by means of anonymous proxies or VPN services. The Law on Information obliges hosting providers to submit information about owners of anonymizers to Roskomnadzor (The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media). The owners of anonymizers have to accede to Register of forbidden websites and to restrict access to websites included in blacklist. In case of non-compliance with the Law on Information, Roskomnadzor can only block such anonymizer.
On 26 September 2018 will enter into force the Federal Law № 155-FZ “On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences”, which imposes new administrative responsibility in respect of hosting providers and search engine operators for non-compliance with art. 15.8 of the Law on Information.
Operators will be responsible for failure to provide information about owners of anonymizers to Roskomnadzor. The Law stipulates fine — from 10 000 RUB to 30 000 RUB in respect of individuals and from 50 000 RUB to 300 000 RUB in respect of legal entities.
Under the new article 13.40 of the Code of Administrative Offences, web search engine could be found responsible in following cases:
- Failure to accede to Register of forbidden websites;
- If a search engine provides links to forbidden websites upon users` requests;
- If a search engine provides information about forbidden domain names or their copies upon users` requests.
Each of these offences can lead to a fine from 3 000 RUB to 5 000 RUB in respect of individuals, from 30 000 RUB to 50 000 RUB in respect of officials, from 500 000 RUB to 700 000 RUB in respect of legal entities.