17.07.2017 Maksim Ali, Senior Associate

Maxim Ali has commented on a draft bill which provides for new obligations to be imposed on social networks

Novaya Advokatskaya Gazeta has published an article titled ‘Social networks under surveillance’, which discusses a number of proposed amendments to legislation which will introduce obligations on the operators of social networks to restrict, delete and store information which is displayed on their networks; a failure to comply with these obligations can result in liability.

Senior Associate at Maxima Legal, Maxim Ali is certain that, although the proposed fines should encourage social networks to comply with legislation on data protection, such strict regulation may be disastrous for the industry.

Maxim drew attention to the fact that the fines for internet businesses have ceased to follow any principle of proportionality. “If previously fines set out in the Code for Administrative Breaches were imposed for specific breaches, now social networks can be punished for violating any norms that regulate their activities.  The result of which is that even an insignificant breach for the new rules creates a risk that a network may incur liability”, explained Maxim.  Reasons for fining a network could be, for example, a feedback page being inaccessible for more than an hour, not deleting content within a specified timeframe or a violation of the regulatory requirements for what should be sent to Roskomnadzor.

Furthermore, the proposed amendments includes periods for the storing and deleting of information at the request for users that are half those provided for in the Yarovaya Law (a controversial law regulating communications and information in Russia) for similar situations.  The result of which is legislation might become contradictory.

There is a feeling that the state is prepared to put social networks in a position whereby it will be easier for content to be silently removed, rather than to understand the worries of users, concluded Maxim Ali.

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