A Russian law, passed in its third and final reading on March 25, aims to ban advertising in extremist social networks. Experts agree that the fines for violating this provision should not be lenient, as the revenue from such advertising can run into millions, while the fines are still relatively low.
In Russia, fines for bloggers who advertise on prohibited foreign information sources can now increase by 40 times. The main focus is on Instagram and Facebook, as the social networks are considered extremist and are banned in Russia.
The newspaper Izvestia wrote about the new law, stating that the provisions will take effect on September 1. Representatives of the blogger community had previously asked the lawmakers to delay the implementation of the law.
According to the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, Russian users, bloggers, entrepreneurs and companies continue to use these social networks, employing technologies to bypass restrictions, for advertising goods and services. The revenue from the advertised goods and services goes to the owners of the resources that carry out provocative activities and hostile actions against the country and its citizens.
The State Duma is currently working on amendments to the legal norms, which would provide for high fines for violating the ban on advertising in Western social networks. According to the lawmakers, the fines could then reach up to 100,000 rubles (over 1,000 euros) for individuals and half a million rubles (over 5,500 euros) for companies.
Izvestia confirmed its agreement with the Roskomnadzor, the supervisory authority, which expressed its support for the law and its implementation. At the same time, the newspaper published information on the billions of rubles spent by bloggers on this type of advertising. Izvestia wrote that Roskomnadzor stated that it has all the necessary instruments to monitor the implementation of the law, including in relation to prohibited resources.
Roskomnadzor also stated that the volume of registered ad budgets for advertising in foreign social networks, inaccessible in Russia, in the Unified Register of Internet Advertising (from 2022 to 2024) amounts to 13.6 billion rubles, with 9.46 billion rubles going to Instagram, 2.12 billion rubles to X (formerly Twitter) and 2.02 billion rubles to Facebook.