Russian Duma proposal to create internet censorship

[Chris Ryan]

Unfortunately, the propositioning and passing of these kinds of
internet censorship laws are becoming a worldwide pandemic and not
just endemic to Russia. Many of these problematic bills are more
closely related than at first glance. I don’t mean to hijack this
thread to be something about America, but bear with me, because it’s a
directly related issue.

Here in the United States, the Big Media lobby pushed insanely hard
for the passage of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), COICA (Combating
Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act), and PIPA (Protect IP act, a
re-visitation of COICA), which very nearly passed (by both parties, as
they were both courted incessantly by this lobby). These bills were
mirrored on a global scale with the design and ratification of the
highly controversial multinational treaty ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement). It was conceived by the US and Japan. Thankfully,
this treaty was soundly defeated by the EU Parliament, 478 to 39, but
other signatories are still in the process of ratifying this treaty
(like the US).

These laws were written ostensibly to protect intellectual property
from the “pirates.” This is similar to other countries’ bills, which
are of the “Please, think of the children!” sort. I raise this issue
about the assault from big media/online piracy because it is directly
mirrored in other aspects in other countries under other auspices
(like the pornography issue). All of these bills are a fundamental
assault on free speech and open expression, like the Russian one,
despite what they proclaim on the surface.

These bills all allow for a threefold problem, had they passed (or
when they pass):
1.	Internet censorship (really, oppression)
2.	The destruction of net-neutrality
3.	More profit for Big Media and ISP’s (Internet Service Providers
like Time-Warner)

Regarding point no. 1: as AFP reports, “The bill would lead to
creation of a mechanism for blocking foreign sites for the first time
by forcing Internet providers to install special equipment.” This is
also problematic for local, not just foreign sites. If ISPs are doing
deep-packet inspection (read: special equipment), they can filter what
they want at will, foreign or not.

By points 2 and 3, I mean that an internet company can promote their
products over someone else’s, raising prices on competitors, and thus
eliminating neutrality in providing content. The companies will run
deep-packet inspection to differentiate their content from others’,
thus destroying privacy. Also, they could charge for different
internet services in tiers, such as how cable/satellite TV is run.
Once these bills are in place, nothing stops the owners of the content
from capitulating to government requests for censorship. Many ISPs
would (and do) self-censor in the face of such governmental pressure.
This has wide corporate as well as societal implications.

Also problematic, is the fact that the head of one of the largest
media lobbies in the US, the Motion Picture Association of America, is
now headed by Chris Dodd, a former US senator. I bring up Chris Dodd,
because he and his organization are a driving factor behind the US
push for multinational treaties like ACTA, which affect other
countries. He has steered his organization to help sponsor the above
US bills, and is constantly pressuring the White House to do more
abroad. On  January 19th of this year, he proclaimed on the news,
directed squarely at the US Congress,  “Those who count on quote
'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is
watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their
job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think
your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job
is at stake." This was after SOPA had failed to pass. Believe it when
he says he writes checks to people in Congress, many are under his
payroll.

The Russian Wikipedia blackout and Yandex’s nixing of “vse” had
precedents in the US SOPA/PIPA online protests as well, such as the
English Wikipedia blackout, Mozilla censoring their logo with a black
bar, Reddit and Flickr shuttering, and Google’s and Facebook's
campaign to educate the American public, among many, many others. This
is why I say these bills are a global pandemic.

Apologies for the novel length email and double apologies for the
US-centric explanation, but I consider this to be a VERY important
topic, one which needs to be researched often and (I believe) fought
hard against in the spirit of global openness and free speech.

Sincerely,
Chris Ryan

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