by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 5, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on July 1, 2017 that enables internet service providers to block any pirate proxy-type site or offshoot.

Search engines also will need to remove all variations from query results, one media outlet reports.

The Russian government and local telecom watchdogs will approve the list of sites, and ISPs will have 24 hours to comply, one media outlet reports.

Copyright holders will have a role in identifying the sites, but the Ministry of Communications will take the responsibility of making the final decision on whether to block or not to block the sites.

“The legislation deals with all kinds of derivative sites, including those that are “‘confusingly similar to a site on the internet, to which access is restricted by a decision of the Moscow City Court in connection with the repeated and improper placement of information containing objects of copyright or related rights, or the information needed to obtain them using the Internet,'” per the report.

In 2012, Russia enforced internet censorship through the Internet Restriction Bill that passed in 2012. The law gives the government the right to block sites and search query results that advocate drug abuse, child pornography, extremism, suicide, and any other information deemed by the government as being detrimental, which is subjective, to the country’s citizens.

Several Ukraine social media sites were blocked earlier this year. Vkontakte and Odnoclassniki, two popular social network sites similar to Facebook in the U.S., were blocked. The government said they blocked the sites against possible disinformation campaigns, propaganda and military attacks.

“More than 25 million Ukrainians, in a country of about 43 million people, use the Russian sites to connect with friends, join groups and use the online messaging systems,” per the L.A. Times.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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