MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. The Belarusian game developer Wargaming, the creator of the popular computer game "World of Tanks" has registered a personal account on Russia’s mass media watchdog website as part of the implementation of the law "On the Activities of Foreign Persons on the Internet Telecommunications Network in the Territory of the Russian Federation", Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s (the upper house of parliament) Commission on Information Policy and Interaction with the Media Alexey Pushkov said.
According to the law, foreign Internet companies with a daily audience of over 500,000 users must open authorized representative offices in the Russian Federation.
"So far, nine Internet platforms have already registered their offices. They are Viber, Spotify, TikTok, Apple, Wargaming, AliExpress, and even Twitter. Zoom is going to do this by mid-February. I think the process is underway and things are starting to thaw, but in my opinion, there will be certain difficulties because the giants, I mean Google and Meta, are now weighing the law requirements and making final decisions on what position they will take," Pushkov said at a roundtable at the Russian Public Chamber, dubbed "Censorship or Moderation? How to Limit the Arbitrariness of Foreign Social Networks."
Meanwhile, the senator noted that there is no information from Facebook at all regarding its plans to implement the requirements of the law, which is "alarming." "It has been a month and a half since the law came into force, and the biggest players are still engaged in a tug-of-war with the Russian authorities. In my opinion, we should show determination and deprive them of the illusion that they are entitled to some special legal status because of their global nature," Pushkov said.
The senator doesn't think that major Internet companies will eventually leave the Russian market because of the law. According to him, in the next one-and-a-half to two months they need to decide on the implementation of the "On the Activities of Foreign Persons on the Internet Telecommunications Network in the Territory of the Russian Federation," otherwise enforcement measures will be applied, which, in particular, include a ban on advertising.
"We are not in favor of any harsh action against them. They have a certain amount of time to make a final decision and fulfill the law’s requirements. I think that at the end of the first quarter we will sum up the preliminary results and see how to proceed from here with those who either do not comply with the law, or comply only partially, or delay the process," Pushkov stressed.