Facing fake news claims, Russia draws fake news bill

MOSCOW — Russia, which U.S. intelligence agencies said spread its fair share of misinformation during the 2016 U.S. election, says it will crack down on “fake news” at home, with a proposed law that critics say could limit freedom of speech on the Internet.

The bill, submitted by lawmakers from the governing party, United Russia, proposes holding social net- works accountable for “inac- curate” comments users post. Under existing Russian law, social media users can be punished for content deemed to promote homo- sexuality, threaten public order or be “extremist” in nature, with fines as well as prison time.

Under the proposed rule, part of a creeping crackdown on digital rights under President Vladimir Putin, websites with more than 100,000 daily visitors and a commenting feature must take down factually inac- curate posts or face a fine of up to 50 million rubles, about $800,000.

The bill gives social media companies 24 hours to delete “inaccurate” infor- mation after being notified of its existence, raising con- cerns that moderators will be left to interpret the term, which is vaguely defined in the measure.

The legislation has passed one of three votes in Par- liament.

Critics worry that out of an abundance of caution, moderators are likely to interpret truthfulness to the authorities’ advantage. They say the bill would make it easier for the state to pressure social media companies to cooper- ate with security services by requiring them to establish offices in Russia, a step that social media giants Facebook and Twitter have avoided so as not to fall under Russian legal jurisdiction.

Intern e t companies, which have often borne the financial costs of restrictions in Russia, say that too many people write posts and leave comments for moderators to thoroughly review every potential instance of false news within 24 hours.

The bill “will become an instrument of censorship” unless social media companies develop algorithms to distinguish real news from fake news, removing the human element and poten- tial bias, Vladimir V. Zykov, the head of an association of social media users in Russia, warned in a recent meeting with lawmakers.

Russian lawmakers have also noticed i nitiatives by other governments — some meant to counter Russian-made fake news — and have co-opted their language and arguments. Marina A. Mukabenova, deputy chair- woman of a Parliament committee on information pol- icy, told the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that fake news sparked “heated discussion” and divided Russian society.

In contrast with debates on fake news in the United States and Europe, Russian lawmakers seem most focused on domestic dissent, rather than foreign meddling. For example, the bill’s co-sponsor, Sergei M. Boyarsky, pointed to what he suggested was a clearcut case of damaging online information: a flurry of posts that exaggerated the death toll of a mall fire in Siberia.

“The tragedy in Kemerovo showed how vulnerable our information space within social networks is to the falsification of information,” he told the news agency Tass.

And yet, in the fire’s aftermath, relatives of victims accused authorities of hiding the true death toll, writing social media posts that helped spur protests and calls for local officials to resign. True or not, the fatality figures posted online became central to a national debate in one of the first domestic crises of Putin’s fourth presidential term. The proposed law, though, would have squelched this debate.

Activists are skeptical that authorities have Russians’ best interests at heart. The language of public safety often conceals efforts at censorship, said Artem Kozlyuk, founder of Roskomsvoboda, an anti-censorship website. The end result, he said, is always “expansion of the government’s powers and censorship.”