Russia enacts 'draconian' law for bloggers and online media

                                    Russia's parliament has voted through a series of internet laws

A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia.

It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets.
Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information.
One human rights group called the move "draconian".

The law was approved by Russia's upper house of parliament in April.

It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.
The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.
Russian bloggers are bracing themselves for the moment when Russia's new "information security law" comes into force on August 01,2014 Some already share advice on how to use proxy servers in order to access social media sites that, in their view, are under threat of being closed.
It is hard to see how the law will be enforced. The servers for most of the popular social media platforms that many Russians use are based outside Russia.
Many popular bloggers are already looking for, and apparently finding, ways to "cheat" the feature that counts page visits and keep their daily unique visitor numbers just under 3000, or to make sure that the statistics are hidden altogether.