Russia has adopted a new law further toughening the country’s Internet-blocking regime and introducing a number of restrictive measures applicable to intermediaries providing access to blocked websites, IT networks, and information resources (hereinafter, “Blocked Websites”).

The relevant provisions of Federal Law No. 276-FZ dated July 29, 2017 (the “Anonymizers Law”), came into force on November 1, 2017.

Due to the vague wording and ambiguities, the enforcement of and practice on the Anonymizers Law will likely be complicated.

Background

In 2012, Federal Law No. 307-FZ was adopted (the “Law on Blocking Websites”), which established a Russian register of Blocked Websites (the “Register”) maintained by the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies, and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor).

Pursuant to the Law on Blocking Websites:

• Websites containing information the dissemination of which is illegal in Russia (such as pornography, information about drugs, suicide, racism, copyright violations, etc.) must be included into the Register following a short remedy period, during which a website owner may remove all relevant information from the website and avoid the inclusion.
• If the website is included into the Register, access to it from the territory of Russia must be blocked.The scope of the Law on Blocking Websites only extends to blocking access to websites containing the prohibited information and does neither prohibit nor restrict any software or hardware allowing to get access to Blocked Websites and serving as an intermediary between users and Blocked Websites (such software or hardware, the “Access Tools”). As a result, users could in practice visit Blocked Websites and the Russian authorities could do nothing about it.

The scope of the Law on Blocking Websites only extends to blocking access to websites containing the prohibited information and does neither prohibit nor restrict any software or hardware allowing to get access to Blocked Websites and serving as an intermediary between users and Blocked Websites (such software or hardware, the “Access Tools”). As a result, users could in practice visit Blocked Websites and the Russian authorities could do nothing about it.

Restrictions Imposed by the Anonymizers Law

The Anonymizers Law:

• Prohibits the provision of the Access Tools for the purposes of granting access to the Blocked Websites.
• Establishes the Federal Government Information System of Access Tools which contains a list of Blocked Websites (the “System”).
• Imposes upon the owners of Access Tools an obligation to connect to the System at Roskomnadzor’s request.
• Prohibits search engines to display results containing links to or information about the Blocked websites.

The Access Tools

The Anonymizers Law does not contain a clear definition of the notion of “Access Tools,” and, if this notion is interpreted broadly, the prohibition could capture:

• Any resources containing lists of VPN services, such as app stores (e.g., App Store, Google Play, Microsoft Store)
• Program platforms, such as operating systems and their technical portals describing VPN configuration (e.g., Apple support and Microsoft support portals)
• Internet browsers offering built-in ways to bypass locks or with a turbo mode function (e.g., Opera, Google Chrome, Safari)
• Social networks and instant messengers through which lists of VPN-services and instructions for their configuration are distributed, etc.

The Anonymizers Law provides for an important exclusion, pursuant to which the regime does not apply to an Access Tool, if:

• the group of users of such Access Tools is predetermined by their owners; and
• such Access Tools is used for technological purposes of maintaining operations of the legal entity using such tools

are not subject to any restrictions. This exception excludes, among other things, VPNs used for remote access for employees.

Rights and obligations of Access Tools Owners, Search Engines and ISPs

If Roskomnadzor believes that there are Access Tools granting access to Blocked Websites:

• It must, in the absence of information about the owner of the Access Tools on its website, submit a notice to the relevant hosting provider requesting such hosting provider to (i) send to Roskomnadzor the information about the owner of the Access Tools; and (ii) notify the owner of the Access Tools of the necessity to publish such information on the website.
• As soon as Roskomnadzor has acquired the information about the owner of the Access Tools, it must send a notice to the owner requesting the owner to connect to the System (the procedure of this shall be established by the Government separately).
• The owner of the Access Tools must connect to the System within 30 business days from the date of such notice.
• After the owner of the Access Tools has connected to the System, Roskomnadzor will have the technical possibility to assess whether the relevant Access Tools are used to get access to Blocked Websites from the territory of Russia and prohibit/block it, if it does.

If Roskomnadzor believes that a search engine disseminating advertising aimed at consumers located in the territory of Russia displays results containing information about Blocked Websites:

• It must send to the operator of such search engine a notice requiring it to connect to the System.
• The search engine must, three days after getting access to the list of Blocked Websites, cease displaying search results containing information about Blocked Websites.
• The Anonymizers Law does not expressly provide for the obligator to “censor” the search results until the receipt of the request.

Failure to comply with the prohibition to provide access to Blocked Websites or refusal/failure to connect to the System may result in the blocking of the Access Tools within the territory of the Russian Federation. An Access Tool may be unblocked, only if the owner of such Access Tool has complied with the requirements to prohibit access to the Blocked Websites and notified Roskomnadzor (in form and substance satisfactory to Roskomnadzor) accordingly.

The Anonymizers Law does not specifically provide for other types of liability. The Anonymizers Law (as currently in force) does not establish any other liability for the “owners” of the Access Tools. It does not establish any liability for the end users, who take benefit from “illegal” use of Access Tools.

The extent, to which the Anonymizers Law will affect Russian Internet usage, remains unclear, but global observers will likely follow progress keenly.

This post was prepared with the assistance of Albert Galliamov in the Moscow office of Latham & Watkins.