Fines Proposed for Refusing to Install Audience Measurement Counters on Internet Services
If the owner of an information resource does not provide the authorized organization (as of February, this is Mediascope) with the ability to measure audience size, they could face a fine of up to one million rubles.
A group of deputies, including Anton Gorelkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology, and Communications, has submitted bill No. 228934-8 “On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation” to parliament. The document proposes introducing administrative liability for owners of information resources whose audience size is subject to measurement if they do not allow the authorized organization to conduct audience research. This includes installing software used by the authorized organization to measure audience size and/or providing the necessary data for such research.
Internet resources that refuse to install such audience counters will face administrative fines:
- Individuals — up to 100,000 rubles
- Officials — up to 200,000 rubles
- Legal entities — up to 1 million rubles
Additionally, the bill provides for administrative penalties for advertising distributors and advertising system operators who fail to fulfill obligations related to the distribution of social advertising. Fines for these violations are:
- Individuals — up to 100,000 rubles
- Officials — up to 200,000 rubles
- Legal entities — up to 1 million rubles
The authors of the bill assure that implementing the provisions of the federal law “On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation” will not require additional expenditures from the federal or regional budgets.
Background on the Unified Internet Audience Measurement Law
The law establishing a unified audience measurement system for internet resources was introduced by Deputy Gorelkin in May of last year and was adopted two months later. In November of the same year, the government issued a decree requiring information resources whose audience size is subject to measurement to provide the authorized organization with the necessary data for audience research. The decree outlined the list of data to be provided and the rules for doing so. In February of this year, Mediascope was selected as the authorized organization.
At that time, a commission under Roskomnadzor recommended that the supervisory agency include 79 information resources in the registry of sites subject to audience measurement. This list included 27 audiovisual services, 4 news aggregators (currently three, as “Yandex.News” was recently removed from the registry), 8 social networks, 26 registered media outlets, and 14 other information resources. The list is not final and may be expanded. Specific resources were not named in the announcement.
Business representatives have reacted negatively to the “unified internet counter,” with many viewing it as a surveillance tool.