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TASS included in list of socially important websites with free access — ministry

Traffic from those websites will not be included on the users’ Internet bill and which will be accessible even with a zero balance.

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. The website of Russian news agency TASS was included in the list of 391 internet portals, to which free-of-charge access will be granted until late June as part of an experiment, according to a decree approved by the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.

The list is not final and can be amended once a week or less frequently.

All websites on the list are divided into the following categories: social networks and online communities; messengers and emailing services; cloud services; online media and news aggregators; search engines; educational, scientific, cultural and art portals; healthy lifestyle websites; reference systems; employment services; delivery services, e-trade aggregators and marketplaces; social and volunteering services.

The experiment will involve Russia’s biggest telecom providers: Rostelecom, Megafon, MTS, VympelCom, MTS and R-Telecom.

Free access to websites of social importance will be provided only to stationary computers. Traffic from mobile devices will not be included into the experiment.

In his address to the Russian parliament on January 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to implement the Accessible Internet project aimed to ensure free access of Russian citizens to socially significant Internet resources, as the Internet has become a daily necessity for Russian citizens.

In line with the presidential instructions, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media was to prepare the list of socially important web portals, traffic from which would not be included on the users’ Internet bill and which will be accessible even with a zero balance.

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