Russia's law banning anonymizers goes into effect
On November 1, Russia’s law that prohibits the use of anonymizers and VPN services went into effect.
Under this law Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) must create and maintain a Federal State Information System (FGIS) which contains a list of prohibited resources.
The press service told TASS news agency that the FGIS is now established and is being tested. Kaspersky Lab, Opera Software AS, Mail.RU and Yandex are participating in the testing. Rambler, Sputnik and anonymizers cameleo.ru, 2ip.ru, 2ip.io also expressed willingness to participate.
The law on the ban of anonymizers was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in late July. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB will track their use and then report violations to the regulator. In turn, Roskomnadzor will require data from anonymizers from providers. If providers do not comply with the law and refusal to connect to the FGIS, the anonymizers will be blocked.
The law states that these requirements will not apply to state information systems and state bodies.