Edward Snowden has taken to Twitter to condemn Russia's proposed "Yarovaya law," which provides prison sentences of 7 years for writing favorably about "extremism" on the Internet, criminalizes failure to report "reliable" information about planned attacks, and requires online providers to retain at least six months' worth of users' communications, 3 years' worth of "metadata" and to provide backdoors to decrypt this material.
On Friday, the legislation passed the lower house of parliament in a 325-1 vote; its passage through the upper house and approval by Putin are expected this week.
In a series of tweets, Snowden amplified the concerns of Russian civil libertarians, calling it a "Big Brother law… an unworkable, unjustifiable violation of rights that should never be signed" and criticizing its technical merit ("'Store 6 months of content' is not just dangerous, it's impractical. What is that, ~100PB of storage for even a tiny 50Gbps ISP?") as well as its philosophical grounding ("Mass surveillance doesn't work. This bill will take money and liberty from every Russian without improving safety. It should not be signed.").
Snowden's political enemies in the USA and the UK frequently accused him of being a puppet (witting or unwitting) for Putin, despite the fact that he's frequently expressed a desire to leave Russia and is only prevented from leaving by the US refusal to return his passport, the revocation of which stranded him in Moscow. Snowden's public opposition to a major piece of Kremlin-backed legislation is further evidence that he is independent of Russian political influence and takes principled stands on surveillance and free speech regardless of the countries involved.
Russia's new Big Brother law is an unworkable, unjustifiable violation of rights that should never be signed. https://t.co/HNsYmRaxR3
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 25, 2016
Tanya Lokshina, the Russia programme director for Human Rights Watch, called it an attack on freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and the right to privacy that gives law enforcement unreasonably broad powers.
"It's very infamous provision of Soviet law they're basically re-enacting, and it's problematic because there's no legal clarity," Lokshina said of the requirement to warn authorities of crimes planned by others. "It's clearly designed for selective implementation."
A measure allowing Russians to be stripped of their citizenship following a terrorist conviction or membership in a foreign army, court or security service was removed before the vote.
Russia passes 'Big Brother' anti-terror laws
[Alec Luhn/The Guardian]
(Image: Pussy Riot – Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, painted portrait – IMG_2449, thierry ehrmann, CC-BY)
