Half-Hearted Inception, Miserable Existence, and the Untimely Death of the Bloggers' Register in Russia

Abstract

The Russian Federation joins a list of countries where violence and terrorism often have a religious and an ethnic basis, and where the authorities seek ways to deal with the issue of online hate speech. In this context, in May 2014 the Russian Parliament enacted Federal Law No 97-FZ (the Bloggers’ Law). This legislation required the compulsory registration of all popular bloggers with the country's internet regulatory agency, Roskomnadzor, thereby forcing the disclosure of their real identities. The Bloggers’ Law has been widely criticised, however, and although the internet community is still engaged in a heated discussion over whether there exists a legal right to online anonymity, the law made anonymous blogging in Russia a daunting undertaking. The Bloggers’ Law was repealed in the second half of 2017, and updating of the ‘Bloggers’ Register’ ceased. This article attempts to (i) analyse the context and the reasoning behind the introduction of the Bloggers’ Register; (ii) disentangle the relevant legal provisions; and (iii) assess its effectiveness, drawing conclusions based on events in the Russian blogosphere during the period 2014–17.

Russia’s law ‘On news aggregators’: Control the news feed, control the news?

“…The law, which required popular bloggers to register as media with Roskomnadzor, for example, disclosing their identities, was adopted in direct response to the role bloggers played in the 2011-2012 protest movement (Litvinenko and Toepfl, 2019). Yet, the law was repealed in 2017 and there is 'no substantial evidence to indicate that the Bloggers' Register was a successful initiative' (Soldatov, 2019). Indeed, by 2017, the online environment the law sought to control had changed: it no longer revolved around bloggers but centred on social media and vloggers active on (foreign owned) YouTube.…”

The Digitalization of Russian Politics and Political Participation

“…For bloggers, some of whom published under a pseudonym, the registration involved, among other requirements, the disclosure of their real identities to the Russian authorities. The impact of the measure on the expression of political criticism online is difficult to ascertain, yet it is known that its introduction did not lead to any blogs being blocked or fines imposed (Soldatov 2019). Nonetheless, as Oleg Soldatov points out, "the mere existence of the public list of popular Internet personalities, administered by and conceived in the interests of a governmental body, should have led to a certain number of such personalities thinking twice before making public their criticism of the government" (Soldatov 2019, 70-71).…”

Selling internet control: the framing of the Russian ban of messaging app Telegram

“…The Russian government has instrumentalized ostensibly sound legitimations countering terrorist and extremist propaganda, combatting child pornographyto bring about a dramatic decline in internet freedom since 2012, enacting extensive infringements upon the freedom of speech, the right to information and privacy (Author, 2020a;Lonkila et al, 2020;Sherstoboeva, 2020). This expanding body of legislation and regulatory practices has been widely studied (Author, 2021;Nocetti, 2015;Sivetc, 2020;Soldatov, 2019), along with the Russian government's perspective on cybersecurity (Claessen, 2020;Pigman, 2019) and online privacy (Lokot, 2020), as well as the consequences of its internet policy for citizens, political opposition and activists (Van der Vet, 2020). Studies have also highlighted the role citizens and non-governmental organizations play in effectuating (Daucé et al, 2019;Gabdulhakov, 2020) and resisting internet control (Ermoshina & Musiani, 2017;Lokot, 2018a).…”