Internet censorship bill passes upper house of Russian Parliament

    Date: 
    19 July 2012

    Russia's upper house of parliament passed a controversial law that would give the government more control over the country's Internet. Though the Russian government claims the law is meant to "shut down any website that it deems harmful to children," some fear the slippery slope of allowing the government to shut down any website it sees as dangerous. Many groups have protested the legislation, including the Russian language Wikipedia and the country's Yandex search engine.