Some things tend to make noise before they even start. In 2012, the predicted end of the world and attempts to censor the Internet have this property in equal measure. But, if the American laws SOPA and PIPA were rejected, then in Russia amendments to the law "On Information" were approved and adopted.
First of all, it is worth clarifying that the amendments were "corrected" in relation to the version that first appeared in the media. The new law states that any site that has "pedophile, drug addiction or suicidal" content can be closed "without trial or investigation" until the information is removed. There are obvious advantages, of course, in this, but the wording is too vague.
For example: on the very first day after the adoption of the law, Wikipedia may be closed, because it is an exhaustive source of information about many types of drugs. Formally, you can close it even because of the brief content of Nabokov's "Lolita". Similarly, you can shut down all search engines, Youtube and any social networks (the latter, perhaps even deservedly so).
Of course, hardly anyone will do this. But, for example, at the time of popular unrest, the same "Twitter" can be closed in order to avoid information leakage. And then announce that "illegal content has been removed" and re-launch the site.
The fact that the court proceedings were canceled before the closure makes it possible to "disable" the portals objectionable to the government in a matter of minutes. At the same time, the user has no way to make sure that the action is lawful - only its owners and “closed” ones will know about the actual content of the closed site. Moreover, not only the "guilty" directly will be under attack, but also related resources, because it is known that many different portals can have a single IP address.
It is difficult to say whether any of this will be realized in reality. On the one hand, I want to believe in the sincere intentions of the government, on the other, there is always China. Beijing, after passing a similar law, began to filter the content of the network in the most severe way, forcing people to communicate in a special, "sterile" slang.
One thing is certain for sure: the new amendment provides gigantic opportunities for limiting freedom of speech in Russia. Previously, the Internet was "free", and there was almost no way to influence it, but now there are quite powerful "levers". All that remains for users is to hope for the honesty of the government and the absence of abuse on their part.
