Posted on 07/12/2012 5:09:03 AM PDT by moonshot925
* Duma passes new information law blacklisting some websites
* Ruling party says bill aims to fight child pornography
* Critics see bill as Putin crackdown on Internet freedom
By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya
MOSCOW July 11 (Reuters) - Russia's lower house of parliament approved a law on Wednesday that the opposition says could be used to censor the Internet and crack down on one of the last forums of open political debate under President Vladimir Putin.
His United Russia party says the law, passed in the third and final reading by the State Duma, is needed to combat child pornography. It will create a single register of websites containing information deemed harmful or illegal from Nov. 1.
But the new law has caused alarm among the opposition and the Russian version of online encyclopedia Wikipedia closed its web pages on Tuesday for a day in protest. [ID: nL6E8IA0P9]
Opposition leaders said the new law could be used to shut down websites such as Facebook and Twitter without a court order and that it was meant to stymie their protest movement, which uses social network sites to arrange anti-Putin demonstrations.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
It is very hard for the Soviet Communists to keep
up with the American Communists, but they are trying.
The ‘backward’ Russians vote on it - here, in the Modern World, the Prez just does it by Executive Edict...
Keep up, Russia!!
Putin has learned from our liberal “leaders”. By claiming that, “it’s for the children”, he’s able to increase his control over the people.
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