The Russian government has redefined the term “new media”
This week the Russian government accepted the draft of an amendment to a set of ANTITERRORISM laws which - pay attention now - rules that top bloggers are now legally regarded as journalists and their blog posts as “media.” Yesterday’s bloggers woke up as today’s potential journalists in the event that they have a minimum of 3000 viewers per day, are included in special government lists, or host ads on their pages. Importantly, this includes social media pages. Bloggers who fall under this category have a whole set of nice new legal obligations, including the responsibility to confirm the accuracy of the information they post, to respect electoral law (rules governing electoral campaigns), to refrain from swearing. And if they use their pages to “hide or falsify information of general interest,” “harm the reputation” of Russian citizens or groups, or spread “extremist material” (you know, whatever that means), they are in trouble with the state. Obviously, the Russian government is working very hard and very creatively to make all unregulated content very much regulated. And interestingly, our bloggers are now one of the objects of Russia’s antiterrorist campaign? In Soviet Russia, blog posts you. Also, check out the cute cat theory of digital activism here.
