Russian Communications Minister wants to regulate social networks and instant messengers

The head of the Russian Ministry of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov said that his department considers it necessary to develop principles for regulating messaging services - primarily social networks and instant messengers.

At the same time, according to Nikiforov, the Russian authorities do not set themselves the task of blocking the work of these programs.

“It is obvious that with the growing penetration of the Internet and similar means of communication, there is a need for basic government regulation. There is no need to deny the need for regulation, at least at the level of terminology and understanding of how different types of services should relate,” Nikiforov quotes. Interfax agency.

The minister also explained that this measure is necessary primarily for security reasons: “It is obvious that information technologies are also used to commit illegal actions.”

As an example, Nikiforov cited a “big discussion” in France after a series of Paris terrorist attacks about “how all this should be controlled in order to prevent the tool from being used in the hands of terrorists.”

“It is obvious that states will introduce certain forms of regulation as the Internet grows,” says the Russian minister. — Freedom on the Internet does not mean impunity and lawlessness. But today there is no exact answer to the question of how Internet communications should be regulated in any country in the world.”

It should be noted that the head of the Russian Ministry of Communications is referring to the regulation of OTT services (from English over-the-top), which allow content to be delivered to any Internet user directly via the HTTP protocol, ensuring high security of the transmitted information. This technology is used not only by telecommunication companies, but also by many social networks.

In Russia, the most popular OTT services are Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook, QIP, Mail.ru Agent, Odnoklassniki, ICQ and VKontakte.

Russian mobile operators have been demanding more than a year to extend state regulation to the rapidly developing market of OTT services.

According to estimates by the consulting company J'son & Partners Consulting, in 2014, the losses of the Russian Big Three mobile operators (Vimpelcom, MTS and Megafon) from the activities of OTT services amounted to approximately 15-20 billion rubles (210-280 million dollars) - about 2% of their total income.

A day earlier, information appeared that Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications) would supposedly regulate the work of text messengers.

As follows from the text of a copy of the bill, which was published by the newspaper "Vedomosti", it is proposed to amend the law, obliging messenger developers to work in Russia only under an agreement with telecom operators.

On Wednesday, the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, said that the department was developing proposals for regulating the activities of OTT services.

“OTT operators must enter into an agreement with telecom operators and comply with the restrictions applicable to operators. The same mass mailing. It's not just instant messengers. These include cinemas and financial services,” Zharov said.

It is assumed that the exchange of messages will be possible only between the identified users, and the messengers will have to deal with identifying users and restricting the distribution of information that is distributed in violation of the law.

In case of violation of the law, the traffic of the service will reportedly be blocked.