Just yesterday the upper house of the Russian parliament
approved draft laws giving the Russian government greater power over the
Internet and nonprofit organizations.
What kind of power you may ask? Well first of all, the
government can now block websites it deems dangerous to children and requires
all nonprofit groups that receive any money from outside Russia to describe
themselves as "foreign agents" if deemed to be engaged in
political activities. These new laws force Russian nonprofits to provide
detailed accounts of their foreign financing.
This violates certain basic human rights….right? U.N. High Commisioner of Human Right Navi Pillay,
would agree. Yesterday, after the passing of these new laws, he condemned them
stating these laws "will have a detrimental effect on human rights in
the country."
Others have taken up issue with these new laws, which
included a one-day shutdown of Russian-language Wikipedia. Since then the
bill's sponsors narrowed the law to limit the state's blocking authority to
websites that offer child pornography, information about illicit drugs or
instructions for committing suicide. Which are all popular subjects of the
nonprofits crowd of course….
If you’d like to learn more click
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