Putin’s rule has been characterized by his abysmal treatment of free speech. Whether it’s Pussy Riot being beaten and arrested or hundreds of anti-Putin protestors being detained, Putin’s detractors have a difficult time making their voices heard. Now Putin seeks to encroach on the final frontier of dissident thought by placing new restrictions on the Internet.
Putin’s new law is the latest in a long line of constricting regulations. Last Monday it was decreed that all popular online bloggers must register with the government by August 1. In addition, blogs and websites with daily visitors that exceed 3,000 will be treated the same as media outlets, making the sites accountable if their information is “inaccurate” (or anti-Putin).
The most threatening stipulation of the new law virtually eliminates anonymity online. Bloggers can no longer keep their identities a secret, and social networks and search engines must store their information dating back to six months.
As intimidating as this legislation is, the law may wind up being difficult to enforce. Popular blogging forums like LiveJournal and Yandex are bypassing the law by simply halting their public traffic counters below the threshold of 3,000. It’s unclear how the government will count site visitors, but the main objective is to silence opposition and find the sources of the ones spurring anti-Putin rhetoric online.
The government has already zeroed in on two such people. Alexei Navalny and Garry Kasaprov, some of Putin’s biggest critics, recently had their respective websites shut down for telling their readers to break some of their government’s unjust laws. Kasparov has led massive demonstrations against Putin in the past, while Navalny, a former world chess champion, ran for president in 2007. In addition to having their sites shut down, the offenders may also be facing a $142,000 fine.
This violation of civil liberties dramatically stifles people like Navalny and Kasparov, who are seeking to enact meaningful change in Russia. Without the internet, they are robbed of the only tool they have to unite against tyranny, but Putin shows no signs of stopping his attack on anyone who stands in his way, even from behind a screen.
[about_faith]
