Russia’s media and Internet watchdog, Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), and the Coordination Center for TLD .RU have signed a cooperation agreement, joining forces in the fight against and prevention of Internet violations. The heads of Roskomnadzor and the Coordination Center, Alexander Zharov and Andrey Vorobyev, inked the agreement following a panel discussion, Preparing Your Company to Combat the Growing Threat of Cyber Crime, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Before today, five private and commercial organizations partnered up with the Coordination Center. The list is now longer, and the Internet self-regulation tool will now be used by a state oversight agency. Acting within its authority, Roskomnadzor will identify sites which repeatedly violate Russian laws prohibiting the distribution of child pornography, and request that the registrar cancel their domain registration. The registrar will consider such request in due time and inform the watchdog of its decision.
If the registrar decides to remove the domain name from the .рф/ru zone, Roskomnadzor will continue to monitor access to the site in question. If no action is taken, the agency will either agree with it, or request more information from the site’s owner or appellant, or file a new request with the registrar. It will notify the Coordination Center of its course of action.
“It is symbolic that the signing takes place following a SPIEF section on cybersecurity. It is yet another practical step toward cooperation between a state supervisor and the key Internet organization responsible for the security of our citizens in cyber space,” Alexander Zharov said in conclusion.
“The agreement is a logical outcome of the two years of cooperation between Roskomnadzor and the Coordination Center. In early 2016, we signed an agreement on research and technological partnership as part of the Netoscope project, which centers on the protection of the national domain zone from malware. Now Roskomnadzor can work directly with other competent organizations and notify domain registrars directly about illegal content,” Andrey Vorobyev said.
