Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law banning the use of tools to bypass blocked internet access. The decree has been published on the official Internet portal for legal information.

The State Duma adopted the package of amendments on July 21, which was approved by the Federation Council on July 25. According to the document, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will have the right to find so-called anonymizers – services through which an internet user can access sites that are blocked in the Russian Federation. If the owners of such services do not block access to information banned in the territory of the country, they will be blocked.

At the same time, Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) will create and will maintain a federal state register of information resources to which access in Russia is limited.

The popularity of anonymizers grew after the entry into force of the anti-piracy law in 2013, which obliges communication operators, by court decision, to block access to pirated content or even entire services.

The ban on anonymizers, VPN and other means that help to bypass the blocking of sites will come into effect in November 2017.

  Russia, anonymizers

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