A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia.
It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets.
Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information.
One human rights group called the move "draconian".
It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.
The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.
Critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom.
'Free expression'Hugh Williamson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, has called the law "another milestone in Russia's relentless crackdown on free expression".
BBC News - Russia enacts 'draconian' law for bloggers and online media
and where are those same campaign groups while the US and UK have been removing internet freedoms and passing laws allowing those governments to collect/intercept internet data on the people in the UK and US?
It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets.
Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information.
One human rights group called the move "draconian".
It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.
The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.
Critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom.
'Free expression'Hugh Williamson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, has called the law "another milestone in Russia's relentless crackdown on free expression".
BBC News - Russia enacts 'draconian' law for bloggers and online media
and where are those same campaign groups while the US and UK have been removing internet freedoms and passing laws allowing those governments to collect/intercept internet data on the people in the UK and US?
Comment