SIM cards, instant messengers, bloggers: The State Duma tightened the rules for communication and the Internet

[Carding Forum]

Deputies approved amendments to combat fraud and strengthen control.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation has adopted amendments to the legislation on communications and the Internet. The new rules significantly tighten the requirements for telecom operators, instant messengers, and popular bloggers.

The changes will primarily affect foreign citizens. Now, to get a SIM card, they will have to personally visit the office of the telecom operator and pass biometric identification. In addition, one person will be able to issue no more than 10 subscriber numbers.

Russian citizens are also subject to restrictions - they will be allowed to have no more than 20 subscriber numbers. At the same time, through the Gosuslugi portal, it will be possible to find out how many numbers are issued for a particular person, and if necessary, suspend their service.

According to the authors of the initiative, such measures are aimed at combating telephone fraud, which in recent years has become a real scourge for Russians.

In addition, the law provides for the obligation of messenger owners to provide, at the request of Roskomnadzor, information about users of the instant messaging service, as well as to prevent users of instant messengers from receiving anonymous messages and calls.

Special attention is paid to popular bloggers and channel owners with an audience of more than 10 thousand subscribers. They will have to submit their data to Roskomnadzor. Otherwise, they will face serious restrictions: a ban on advertising from Russian advertisers, reposts from other channels, and collecting donations.

Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, stressed that the new rules will also apply to Telegram channels. According to him, many of them are already more influential than traditional media, but they are practically not responsible for the information disseminated, including fakes.

"Owners of channels with an audience of more than 10 thousand subscribers will be required to submit information about themselves to the regulator and not distribute prohibited information," the deputy said.

Khinshtein emphasized that we are not talking about blocking channels without identification. However, such "anonymous users" will lose the ability to advertise, collect donations, and their posts will not be reposted to other channels.

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[Friend]

In Russia, the idea of criminal prosecution of employees of mobile phone stores for certain violations when selling SIM cards is being considered at the state level. The initiative is being discussed by the Ministry of Digital Development and major telecom operators. The goal is to fight the SIM card market.

Risk of criminal prosecution

In the foreseeable future, employees of mobile phone stores may face a non-exclusive threat of imprisonment for selling SIM cards issued with certain violations. According to Kommersant, citing a source in an unnamed telecom operator, the Ministry of Digital Resources and major telecom operators are already discussing this idea, the meaning of which is to combat "gray" SIM cards.

According to the publication, criminal prosecution will be threatened to employees of communication salons "in case of repeated violations of the rules of operation when registering subscribers and with personal data within the Unified Biometric System." Exactly how many violations will be considered repeated was not known at the time of publication of the material.

Kommersant quotes Vladimir Mesropyan, Megafon's Director of Government Relations, as saying during his speech at the State Duma IT Committee meeting on July 29, 2024. According to him, "taking into account the next step, when the legislator speaks about criminal liability for our employee who committed repeated violations, the requirements (for security-approx. CNews) to us will be even higher".

Representatives of the operator separately clarified to the publication that this meant that "telecom operators have all the technical capabilities to carry out the procedure for collecting biometrics for the EBS and in case of obtaining such a right are open to potentially increasing responsibility"

Everyone refuses the initiative

"We did not come up with an initiative to put more of our employees," a source in one of the major operators told the publication, adding that the initiative is still under development. But, according to him, "there is an idea to put employees in jail for "left" SIM cards."

In government circles, they claim that the Ministry of Digital Development "does not discuss such an initiative." This publication was indicated by a source close to the Government.

We also remind that in Russia, by the time the material was published, a bill was almost adopted to limit the number of SIM cards to 20 pieces, which can be issued for one passport. By the end of July 2024, it has passed three readings in the State Duma-ahead of consideration in the Federation Council and receiving the signature of the head of state.

This is too much

The largest telecom operators, for the most part, do not comment on the new initiative of the authorities. In particular, MTS and Beeline declined to comment to Kommersant.

Tele2 representatives, on the contrary, clearly indicated the operator's opinion on this issue. "Against the background of strict procedures regarding the verification of customer data in the retail network, this measure seems redundant," Tele2 representatives told CNews.

Representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development declined to comment.

Or failure of the plan, or imprisonment

Experts interviewed by the publication believe that employees of communication salons are often forced to sell "gray" SIM cards issued with violations in order to make a sales plan. "Usually these are people who are not only financially responsible, but also their salaries often depend on the sales plan," Alexey Slukin, editor of the profile Telegram channel "Telecommunalka", told Kommersant. – In order to get a full salary, they often have to go to tricks, such as selling SIM cards to the gray market."