State regulation of online speech in Russia: The role of internet infrastructure owners

Abstract

<p>This article analyses recent developments in regulatory practices applied by the Russian government to online speech. The article relies on internet infrastructure-centric theories developed in the US legal scholarship by Lawrence Lessig and Jack Balkin, among others, and applies these theories to the Russian setting in a novel way. According to these theories, governments prefer indirect regulation of online speech by controlling the internet infrastructure to direct regulation by law. Indirect regulation is realized through cooperating between states and owners of the internet infrastructure. This article argues that this theoretical framework can be applied for analysing regulation in Russia as well. The article looks at how Roskomnadzor, a government executive agency in the sphere of telecommunications, cooperates with owners of the Russian internet infrastructure. The article reveals that this cooperation may bring drastic implications to the right to freedom of expression enjoyed by Russian online mass media and internet users.<br /></p>