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Telecom and IT watchdog assures Russia presents no shutdown threats to YouTube

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russia presents no shutdown threats to YouTube, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) Alexander Zharov told TASS on Thursday.

"The law should be read carefully, the company is exempt from its effect. The services with dominating user-generated content are not in any way subject to the law," he said, responding to a question about YouTube potentially leaving Russia.

Zharov noted that at the same time online cinemas fall under the law, unlike YouTube. "There is absolutely no threat," Zharov said.

Earlier MPs Shamsail Saraliyev of the United Russia party and Andrei Lugovoy of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, a law that limits foreign ownership of online movie theaters to 20% and introduces a range of other limits.

The proposed legislation envisages restrictions on foreign participation (foreign control) on organizers of audiovisual services visited by more than 100,000 Internet users from Russia every day per month. This also refers to a service aimed for users living in one Russian region and having the audience of over 20,000 every day during the month. Such online movie theaters will be included in a special registry.