YEKATERINBURG: Russia is planning to block giant online platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
First reported by Financial Express, the Russian Parliament has drafted legislation against the US tech giants. Accordingly, the regulators will block Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s YouTube if they are found guilty of censoring Russian people’s content.
According to the international news agency, draft legislation has been passed in the Lower House of the Russian parliament. The draft would then be presented in the Upper House. Once it is passed in the upper house, President Vladimir Putin would sign the bill, and it will become a law.
The parliament said in a statement that the authorities would have the power to target internet-based platforms upon finding them to be limited information based on language as well as nationality.
Read more: Russia announces to launch its own TikTok
The lower house of the Russian parliament State Duma also said that websites found to be discriminating against Russian media’s content would also be banned. The decision was taken as Russian media sent several complaints to authorities this year that their accounts were being censored by Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
However, Google and Facebook are facing anti-trust issues in their own home country, the US. Anyway, the State Duma says other websites that carry out such unfair practices would also be banned. Let’s play the waiting game to see how this situation turns out.
