Loss of Privacy

Internet users in Belarus are facing new restrictions as the government has begun blocking sites it considers to be “extremist”.

It is being seen as a potential setback for the country’s opposition movement, who use the internet to organise themselves. President Aleksander Lukashenko faces an increasingly restive opposition, and demonstrations followed the last election he won, allegedly with 80 per cent of the vote.

Many of those arrested are still in jail.

From Friday, any internet site providing goods or services to users in Belarus must use the domain name ‘.by’. This would make it illegal for firms like Facebook, Amazon, or eBay to operate in the country.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports.

Starting this summer, anyone who wants to enter an internet cafe will be required to show their passport.

The decree requires all Internet providers in Belarus to store data on the Internet use of individuals for a full year and to hand that information over to law-enforcement agencies upon request.

It also requires Internet service providers to block access to any website within 24 hours of being asked to do so by government regulators — a provision that goes beyond antiterrorism security rules imposed under the most restrictive Internet laws in Western countries.

Activists said the “Decree on the Regularization of the Belarusian segment of the Internet” is simply being used to tighten control over the Internet in the country.

The president’s official website says the decree is “an attempt to protect the rights of Belarusian citizens, society, and the state in the field of information.”

While this appears to be targeted at Belarusians, particularly activists, it will probably be required of anyone entering internet cafes, including foreigners.