World News for Students of English

07-05-2019 07:00

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed new laws last Wednesday. Their aim is to create the country’s own Internet, and this would mean that the Russian Internet would not need international servers.

The Russian government could take control in case of danger to the stable and safe operation of the Russian Internet in the Russian territory. Russia plans to test this new system later this year and the laws will take effect in November.

However, there are critics of the new system – they that say this could lead to censorship. Some fear Russia could create its version of China’s Great Firewall, which China uses to hinder free speech.

There were reports that Russia tried to stop free speech on the Internet before. For example, it banned some sites and messaging platforms. Since 2014, blogs which are visited by more than 3,000 people a month must be registered.

Difficult words: censorship (stopping some information), firewall (a part of a computer system which blocks something), hinder (stop, block).

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