State V. anonymity network

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MOSCOW, 21 Feb — RIA Novosti. The government is determined to fight anonymity and the spread of illegal content on the Internet. The state Duma on Friday, the last day of the spring session, passed the third reading of the two laws, aimed at this – the regulation of messengers and prohibiting the use of access technologies in Russia blocked sites (so-called anonymizers).

The laws are aimed, in particular, to fight illegal content and terrorism. However, experts disagree on the assessment of the adopted laws. So, Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev believes them is technically infeasible.

Messengers

The law on regulation of messengers obliges the organizer of instant messaging (messenger) to identify users by phone number based on the agreement on identification, signed by the messengers with the operator, and to deny users the messaging failure to comply with this condition.

The law establishes that the messengers, who are Russian legal entities or citizens of the Russian Federation, entitled to carry out identification of the user by determining the subscriber number without a contract.

Also the messengers entrusted with the obligations to limit distribution and the transmission of messages containing information disseminated in violation of the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation. In the event of default of this requirement provides for the possibility of restricting access to messenger.

The law should enter into force on 1 January 2018.

According to Marinicheva, the law is practically impossible from a technical point of view and is nothing but a mechanism of pressure on the messengers. “This selective enforcement is, nothing more, and additional pressure mechanism,” said Marinichev RIA Novosti. “All is pure profanation,” — he said.

The General Director it is information-analytical Agency TelecomDaily Denis Kuskov agrees. “When there was a dispute with Roskomnadzor Telegram, I immediately said that this is only the first series… for a few months, the conversation will come to a different component because Roskomnadzor and law enforcement agencies anyway want to get information about users and their correspondence. So, anyway, all the evidence suggests that the government wants to oversee all kinds of people interact with each other,” — says Pieces.

He also noted that to identify users of messaging apps by phone number it will be difficult, because it often happens that the SIM cards sold in other people’s names.

“To check the validity of sold SIM-cards is not always possible… those who bought the SIM card not in his name, he is not to be identified, until he was forced to come to the office operator. All other validation and verification allow to identify only the phone number from which the request arrives, but not the owner. Even if in the future there will be stricter requirements for the sale of SIM cards, this will not solve the issue that those who bought the SIM card not in their name, can use them. In fact, this authorisation messenger does from the point of view of security does not help. Will be a certain number of SIM cards, which were purchased by illegal means”, — said the expert.

At the same time, the Director of the project the activities of the Institute of development Internet (IRI) Arseny Weltzin welcomes the adoption of the law, believing that it will help the state to guarantee the security and sovereignty of citizens in the messengers. However, we should not forget about their rights and freedoms.

“In a legal sense, you cannot ignore the most popular electronic way of communication – messengers. The state should not pay for the uncontrolled freedom of communication of citizens, must ensure their security and sovereignty, without forgetting about the rights and freedoms”, — said Weltzin, commenting on the new law.

Anonymizers

Another adopted on Friday the law prohibits the use of information systems and programs to gain access to Internet resources access to which in Russia is limited (anonymizers). However, it is proposed to provide access to these networks and programs to the information resources of Roskomnadzor, containing data on sites with limited access, so that they could be guided by them.

The mechanism of restriction of access to information resources on the basis of decisions of Roskomnadzor introduced with the aim of preventing harmful consequences from the use of “media bypass” and does not exclude the possibility of appeal against such decisions in court.

The document also prohibits operators of search engines to divulge the territory of Russia on the lock resources. For the operators of search engines, this ban is also proposed to provide them with access to the registry of banned sites Roskomnadzor.

The head of the Duma Committee on information policy, Leonid Levin has previously stressed that the bill anonymizers are directed not to introduce new restrictions for law-abiding citizens — we are talking only about the ban on the use of services to access illegal content. In addition, the paper made an exception for encryption networking entities that use these services to the corporate goals.

The Internet Ombudsman thinks fit and the act “fake” and technically unenforceable. “Will not it does work, because it is technically unenforceable. This can only lead to selective punishment of individual organizers of the dissemination of information. People will just use other technological solutions, if need be. But in General it’s like a witch hunt, nothing more,” said Marinichev.

In his opinion, the MPs passing the law, did not understand how it then to do. “What they (the law – ed.) to regulate, they (the deputies – ed.) do not know themselves. How to apply — do not know. Who is it going to do — no one knows. How to check the correctness or incorrectness of the work the VPN service? Even it will be difficult to determine who is its owner. In General, it’s about anything, it’s some kind of a fake law” — said the Internet Ombudsman.

Pieces of TelecomDaily also doubts the possibility of 100 percent implementation of the law. “It would be hard to say, because we don’t know how it will be technically implemented, by and large. All will be clear in practice… we Have repeatedly made many laws – for example, banning the sale of “grey” SIM cards, prohibiting access to forbidden sites – but not all of them were implemented from a technical point of view to the end. So to say now that the law put now 100% the end of everything, I’m not ready yet,” said Grand.

“Roskomnadzor is working in this direction, but I think not all features that are expected by law might be fulfilled physically,” he added.

For its part, Weltzin believes that the law will not eradicate illegal content, but will greatly reduce the problem. “The deputies took into account all our recommendations, and now this law is not combating anonymizers or VPN-technology and the fight against illegal content. Of course, the law does not fully solve the problem of illegal content but will reduce multiple,” said Weltzin.

“Our legislation has to take into account the basis of new technological processes. In this regard, such as the regulation of repeaters intermediaries who disseminate prohibited information does not cause issues,” he added.

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