Russia’s prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, has called for social networks to be monitored by the state to prevent London-style uprisings.
Such measures, Chaika said, will help prevent serious threats to public security.
“We all saw what happened in London,” he said at a meeting of the CIS Prosecutors General Coordinating Council in Minsk. “It is evident that we need to bring social networks under reasonable control – simply to protect citizens’ freedoms.”
The suggestion was supported by Belarusian Prosecutor General Grigory Vasilevich, who stated that the basic rules for using the internet and social networks must be developed on an international level.
“These regulations could be a sufficient response to various libelous articles, insinuations and incitement to break the law that are widely popular on the internet,” Vasilevich told the Interfax news agency.
Kazakh Prosecutor General Askhad Daulbayev pointed out that the Russian segment of the internet has hundreds of sites calling for extremism and terrorism.
“Countries should consolidate in opposing this evil,” Daulbayev said.
Imposing control over the internet, especially social networks, has long been a burning issue worldwide. The issue has become even more complicated since reports emerged on rioters in Egypt, Libya and even the UK using social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to coordinate their activities.
During the most turbulent weeks, the authorities of those countries even blocked access to the internet, hoping it would stop or slow down the rioters.
At the same time, there have been numerous reports that Facebook owners have been cooperating with the CIA. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange told RT that Facebook, Google and Yahoo even have a special interface developed for US intelligence.