MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Internet companies should not permit the dissemination of calls for unauthorized protests, and adequate measures in response to such actions would be taken, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has cautioned.
Touching on the warning about the illegitimacy of the forthcoming unauthorized protests on January 31 sent by Moscow’s Prosecutor’s Office to the rally organizers and five Internet companies spreading calls for these actions, Peskov pointed out that Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications had cautioned various social networks against becoming platforms for such calls. "The Prosecutor’s Office reacted too, and this is quite understandable," he noted.
According to Peskov, large Internet companies are becoming platforms for echoing calls to hold illegitimate activities, that’s why they are warned. "This is quite natural and quite normal," he emphasized.
"As a whole, we as a state, would certainly like them not to become platforms for making announcements about such illegal actions and not to provide their platforms for promoting such actions," he stressed.
When asked what kind of culpability Internet companies could come up against for such actions, the press secretary assured that all the positives and negatives would be weighed and, if necessary, steps would be taken according to the law. He remained tight-lipped on whether blocking social networks would be overreach by the authorities. Peskov noted, however, that "some excessive violations of the current laws require an adequate response, if they take place." "The advisability of taking certain measures will be determined by the relevant regulatory agencies," he specified.