Western politicians concerned about social networks' growing influence on public opinion

Nov. 20, 2017 - PRLog -- The State Duma of Russia unanimously passed a legislative amendment that would allow foreign media to be classified as foreign agents. It is expected that the Ministry of Justice will address every issue on a case-by-case basis, as it was a forced measure which came as a response to the United States' actions against the American branch of Russia Today (RT) and the Sputnik news agency.

"The adopted framework amendments will have to note in common with the attitude toward the press freedom and foreign media operation in Russia," stressed Leonid Levin, the head of the State Duma's Committee on information policy.

According to him, the key and the main reason for adopting the bill were the activities of the US authorities against the Russian media.

"We would like to see in this list as few outlets as possible," the State Duma deputy said.

Earlier it was reported that the leadership of Twitter banned advertising from RT and Sputnik under the pressure of the US intelligence community engaged in the investigation of the alleged "Russian interference" in the election of the US president. Meanwhile, Washington has not yet provided any real evidence to its allegations.

Analyzing the current situation, Kurt Opsahl, the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, reminded that Twitter is not a state actor, and has the right to moderate its platform, but it should use this right wisely.

"Twitter was reacting to an assessment by the United States intelligence community that RT and Sputnik interfered with the U.S. election on behalf of the Russian government, as well as Twitter's non-public internal research. Many may be tempted to celebrate Twitter's decision as a move to protect democracy from an authoritarian state. We fear it's just the opposite," the expert said.

From his point of view, a ban on all advertising from a particular entity, knocking out everything from articles covering a cheese rolling festival to coverage of an election, would be an over-broad prior restraint on speech.

Source: https://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/64767-2017