Social networks are a huge information space. For a long time, it was subordinate to only its own laws, as a result of which a gigantic number of communities forbidden subjects was formed in it: prostitution, children's pornography, disassembers of prohibited substances and weapons settled in the network "settled". It was possible to influence them only through the administrators of social networks, which did not always lead to the desired result - blocking distributors of illegal content. Either hope for the law enforcement authorities, whose representatives, on the basis of the application of users, had to identify violators and achieve their responsibility, as well as the removal of violating the law of communities and publications.
In fact, the observance of local legislation was previously a recommendatory nature, to attract distributors of the "Prohibitory" to the liability was extremely difficult. And the power structures did not have or lacked profile specialists in working with social networks.
But from February 1, 2021, responsibility for the content of all materials published by users has shifted on social networks. These will also be applied fines for the failure of unwanted content.
The new law 530 - FZ identified the resources falling into the category of "social networks". These include all sites and resources with an uncertain circle of persons in the state language or the language of the Russian Federation, for which advertising can be accommodated on the site, and the audience of their users from Russia is more than 500 thousand people. And also recorded the categories of content to be blocked - from child pornography, calls for suicide before advertising online casinos, insults of honor and dignity, disrespect for the symbols of power and appeals to mass riots.
Roskomnadzor statistics suggests that more than 100 thousand materials with prohibited content appear annually on the network. Significant fines for social networks should contribute to the cleansing of the information space. Moreover, delete content or not - resources no longer have the right to independent decision making. If unwanted communities or materials are discovered and it turns out that measures are not taken, the platform is caught. Moreover, depending on the severity of the article, as well as the presence of repeated cases of violation of the legislation, it can be about figures from 100 thousand to 1 million rubles or 1/5 annual income. The relevant law president signed at the end of last year.
But even the prospect of the application of sanctions is worried not all. For example, according to March 11, in Twitter, Roskomnadzor knows about more than 3.1 thousand materials with prohibited information. Until now, it remains available on the network, and the administration of the site did not respond to the requirement of removal. Another social network - Facebook - is more responsible for compliance with the requirements of legislation. On March 5, a notice was sent to the administration about the need to block advertisements on the set of drug trains, on March 12, the resource was reported to fulfill the requirements of the regulator.
In general, the state intervention in the activities of social networks is not a unique practice for Russia. In the USA, in 2020, the current President Donald Trump turned out the company and issued a relevant decree on the regulation of social networking activities in the country. The first in sight was twitter, previously considered a neutral platform and endowed with a responsibility.
There is a practice of the European Union, in particular France, with respect to countering the spread of fakes, terrorist agitation, child pornography. At the same time, the period of response of sites to the regulator request is regulated in Europe - 1 hour, and the fines are increased three times and can reach 112,500 euros.