Federal Supervision Agency punishes sites for readers’ comments

Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications (FSAITC) issued the first warning to the online edition for readers' comments. The Agency was acting upon the recent clarification of “Mass Media” law provisions, made by the Supreme Court (SC). Political News Agency (APN.ru) was the first to be caught.

As reported at FSAITC web site, they found some comments on APN sites were aggressive in nature, comprising a threat and incitement to violence or containing signs of incitement to terrorist activities and crimes implementation.

FSAITC wrote an email addressed to the APN editor-in-chief Konstantin Krylov on June 21, requesting to remove or edit objectionable comments, as required by law. A day later, when no reaction followed, FSAITC introduced a written warning about the law observance, and demanded the removal of the comments from the site.

If we go to the APN web site now, we can see, that there are no comments to any of the articles of the edition. Moreover, now you can’t leave any comments at all.

According to Krylov, he saw the letter only on June 22, when he opened his mail. Accordingly, he had not been able to edit or delete the bad comments before FSAITC decided to make the warning.

"FSAITC did not tried to contact me any other way or appeal to my colleagues, - assures PNA editor-in-chief. - One-day period sets me thinking about the legality of this warning”.

FSAITC Manager assistant, Mikhail Vorobiev, confessed to “Kommersant” that the rules defining FSAITC actions in such cases are still being developed. Despite this, FSAITC found it possible to act without any regulation, self-defining methods of communication with online media, as well as dates for the next steps.

"We believe that one day was enough to remove the comments" - Vorobiev said. He also explained that the requirement to remove comments was sent by email, so that the editor-in-chief could promptly
responded to it.

APN editor-in-chief said that he has not decided yet, whether to sue FSAITC.