WHAT IS THE RUSSIAN FOR FACEBOOK? “Everything goes through servers located in the United States, and everything is monitored there. That is what you have to start from. That’s how it is, because this was all constructed by the Americans, they did it. You know, after all, that this all arose at the outset, at the dawn of the Internet, as a special project of the CIA of the United States, and that is how it is still developing. All the rest is, so to speak, thanks to the market, it generated a huge market turnover. But still, this was originally a military programme, and that intelligence programme is still right there, in the centre of it, this presence of the security services.” In the eyes of defensive, conservative commentators, the social networks are nothing more nor less than a tool to provoke “colour revolutions”, a weapon of the US in its struggle for global domination, which only Russia, in the whole world, is opposing. On the other hand, the order to pull the plug on the global networks in Russia has not been given. We continue our discussion with Anton Nosik. VA: The law comes into force. What happens then to the global networks in Russia? AN: Nothing. VA: In other words, the law will not apply to global social networks? AN: What do you mean by “apply”? It can’t apply to them. You can’t send a team to California to carry off the servers. You could punish someone for refusing to comply with the law, but the only available penalty is to block a particular network in Russia. VA: So will they? The new law changes nothing. As before, Putin has only to say, “Pull the plug!” and they will. AN: The law has no bearing on that question. There are already some 20 laws under which Russia could block Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google and so on. No law has the least significance on its own. It’s a waste of time pretending the law counts for anything in Russia: all the more so while we have Law 398-FZ, which says that any resource, without exception, can be blocked in Russia on the strength of a single phone call. When the political will to close the foreign social networks is there, they will be closed, and which law is used in the process is beside the point. Under Law 139- FZ, which was adopted in 2012, Twitter can be closed for refusing to remove a tweet. The new law changes nothing. As before, Putin has only to say, “Pull the plug!” and they will. Until he does, nothing will be shut down, no matter what laws came into effect on 1 September, or 1 August, or 1 July. All that this law achieves is to provide Excuse No. 21 for shutting down Twitter and Facebook in Russia. And if they are shut down, it won’t be because any law requires it, but solely because the order has been given to do so. What excuse is used is neither here nor there. VA: Nevertheless, all year the heads of global networks have been flying to Moscow and having talks with Roskomnadzor. AN: They’ve been having nothing of the sort. Roskomnadzor issued some demands and they turned them down. As Roskomnadzor has no authority to punish them for that, it has been issuing 12