Last week, Russian MPs concluded that they were a step closer to enabling regulators block the web platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, if it is confirmed that they censored content from Russia. The State Duma announced that the authorities might target the platforms if it was established that they restricted information based on nationality and language.

They added that the web pages might also be sanctioned ‘in case of discriminating content of Russian media’.

The draft law authors said that this year the authorities received complaints of Russian media claiming that their accounts were censored by ‘the foreign web platforms Twitter, Facebook and YouTube’.

Earlier his year, these US tech giants introduced labels for state media.

The laws are now to be approved by the parliament and then signed by president Vladimir Putin, the AFP reports.

In recent years, the Kremlin has intensified efforts in controlling the Russian segment of the Internet, under the excise of the fight against online extremism.

In 2018, watchdogs issued an order to block the message service Telegram, although these efforts ended at the beginning of this year after its co-founder Pavel Durov informed about steps in that fight.

Last week, a court in Moscow fined Google for not deleting content banned by the Russian authorities.

In February, a court in Moscow fined Twitter and Facebook for ignoring the Russian law requiring storing of data on Russian citizens within that country.

Source: Slobodna Evropa