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New rules for domain name prolongation threaten Russia's freedom of speech, human rights activists said on Wednesday as the nation's biggest web-registration company is set to change its regulations.

No court decision will be needed to block a web-site registered by RU-Center, according to the new rules that are coming into force on Feb. 24.

The procedure is to apply to third-level domain names, the head of the public relations department Andrei Vorobyov said, and is to remain the same for the second level, Digit.ru reported.

New form of censorship

Lawyers from human rights organization Agora said the new rules were a form of censorship, which was officially forbidden by Russian legislation.

Agora's fears that all the domains registered through RU-Center in .ru and . zones could suffer, were unfounded, the company's representatives said.

"In fact, we've been administrators of the zones .spb.ru, .msk.ru, net.ru and some others, and we are responsible for the information these websites contain," Digit.ru cited Vorobyov as saying.

Russia's leading liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy, which is facing a dissolution of its board amid reports on alleged pressure from the government, also has its website registered in the .msk.ru zone.

Agora lawyers said these rules breach federal media legislation, which applies to all online publications, Gazeta.ru reported.

Cleaning out the trash

Several hundred thousand websites have been registered in RU-Center's zones, but the vast majority of them are just "rubbish," according to the company's representatives.

"Registration was free for a long time, and it includes a great amount of 'trash,' for example sites with malicious code," Andrei Kolesnikov, director at Coordination Center of the National Internet Domain, told RIA Novosti.

According to the new rules, the company will block domain names in order to stop illegal and harmful for third parties activities and all decisions are to be made by its experts.

If content evaluation is carried out by the company without a court ruling, RU-Center will be able to react more promptly, Kolesnikov added.

Keywords: Russia, Media, Internet - Russia News - Russia

 

New rules for domain name prolongation threaten Russia's freedom of speech, human rights activists said on Wednesday as the nation's biggest web-registration company is set to change its regulations.

No court decision will be needed to block a web-site registered by RU-Center, according to the new rules that are coming into force on Feb. 24.

The procedure is to apply to third-level domain names, the head of the public relations department Andrei Vorobyov said, and is to remain the same for the second level, Digit.ru reported.

New form of censorship

Lawyers from human rights organization Agora said the new rules were a form of censorship, which was officially forbidden by Russian legislation.

Agora's fears that all the domains registered through RU-Center in .ru and . zones could suffer, were unfounded, the company's representatives said.

"In fact, we've been administrators of the zones .spb.ru, .msk.ru, net.ru and some others, and we are responsible for the information these websites contain," Digit.ru cited Vorobyov as saying.

Russia's leading liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy, which is facing a dissolution of its board amid reports on alleged pressure from the government, also has its website registered in the .msk.ru zone.

Agora lawyers said these rules breach federal media legislation, which applies to all online publications, Gazeta.ru reported.

Cleaning out the trash

Several hundred thousand websites have been registered in RU-Center's zones, but the vast majority of them are just "rubbish," according to the company's representatives.

"Registration was free for a long time, and it includes a great amount of 'trash,' for example sites with malicious code," Andrei Kolesnikov, director at Coordination Center of the National Internet Domain, told RIA Novosti.

According to the new rules, the company will block domain names in order to stop illegal and harmful for third parties activities and all decisions are to be made by its experts.

If content evaluation is carried out by the company without a court ruling, RU-Center will be able to react more promptly, Kolesnikov added.