A draft law has been submitted to the State Duma, according to which the distribution of advertising on a number of resources will be prohibited. Amendments are planned to be made to Articles 12 of Law No. 114-FZ “On Countering Extremist Activities”, as well as to Articles 5 and 38 of Law No. 38-FZ “On Advertising”.
The explanatory note to the draft law states that “the receipt of advertising income by owners of illegal information resources allows them to create new content, including prohibited information, and maintain user interest in their resources.” Facebook, Instagram and Facebook are still used by Russians via VPN, which creates an opportunity for owners of such resources to receive income from the distribution of advertising.
Who will the law apply to?
The ban will affect the following resources:
- Resources of organizations recognized as extremist.
The list of organizations in respect of which a decision has been made to liquidate and ban activities in connection with countering extremism is located on the website of the Ministry of Justice. Such organizations, for example, include the “International LGBT Social Movement and its structural units” (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/30/2023 in case No. АКПИ23-990С).
- Resources of organizations whose activities are considered undesirable in the territory of the Russian Federation.
A list of such organizations can be found on the website of the Ministry of Justice. Of the last decisions, the American organization Center for Strategic and International Studies, for example, is recognized as undesirable.
- Resources of terrorist organizations.
A list of such organizations can be found on the FSB website.
- Resources, access to which is restricted on the territory of Russia in accordance with the legislation on information protection.
You can check whether the resource is blocked on the Roskomnadzor website.
What exactly is forbidden?
In accordance with the law “On Advertising”, advertising is information disseminated in any way, in any form and using any means, addressed to an indefinite circle of people and aimed at attracting attention to the object of advertising, forming or maintaining interest in it and its promotion on the market. From this definition, it can also be concluded that the concept of “distribution” of advertising is as broad as possible, that is, it involves bringing information to the public in any way.
It turns out that if the law comes into force, for example, advertising cosmetics on Instagram or advertising scientific literature on the resource Center for Strategic and International Studies will be prohibited.
Responsibility
The draft law does not provide for separate rules on liability for advertising on such resources. Thus, liability for violation will occur under paragraph 1 of Article 14.3 of the Administrative Code (violation of advertising legislation) and will amount to 500 thousand rubles for legal entities. Advertisers and/or advertising distributors will be responsible.
To avoid liability, it is necessary to refuse to advertise on such resources, as well as monitor the registers of the Ministry of Justice, the FSB and Roskomnadzor, so as not to miss the moment when one or another organization becomes an unsuitable counterparty for advertising.
As a reminder: earlier we also talked about the prohibition of advertising on the resources of foreign agents. The relevant law came into force in March 2024.