The State Duma approved for the first reading a bill on fines for "defaming traditional values".

The State Duma approved for the first reading a bill on fines for "defaming traditional values".

The State Duma Committee on Criminal and Administrative Legislation recommended adopting in first reading a bill to introduce administrative fines for the distribution of audio-visual works that, according to the authorities, allegedly violate "traditional Russian spiritual and moral values", as well as for refusing to limit access to them at the request of Roskomandzor.

For non-compliance with the requirements of Roskomandzor, owners of social networks and audiovisual services are liable to fines of up to one million rubles for legal entities, up to 200 thousand for officials and up to 20 thousand for citizens. For a repeated violation, the maximum fine for legal entities will be 5 million rubles, for officials - 800 thousand, for citizens - 300 thousand rubles.

Separate fines are given to owners of audiovisual services for distributing such works: up to 700 thousand rubles for legal entities, up to 100 thousand for officials and up to 5 thousand for citizens. In case of repeated violation, the amounts will increase to 3 million, 400 thousand and 150 thousand rubles, respectively.

At the same time, one of the authors of the bill, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, member of United Russia Sergey Boyarsky clarified that "citizens" in this norm supposedly mean owners of social networks, and not ordinary users.

According to media reports, the bill was submitted by United Russia deputies Sergey Boyarsky, Anton Gurlkin, Anton Nemkin and Alexei Volutskov.