Fines for advertising in banned foreign social networks may be increased to 1 million rubles. The bill was prepared by United Russia deputies.
Currently, fines for individuals range from 2,000 to 2,500 rubles, and for legal entities — from 200,000 to 500,000 rubles. According to the new proposed measures, individuals will be subject to fines from 50,000 to 80,000 rubles, officials — from 80,000 to 150,000, and legal entities — from 500,000 to 1 million rubles.
The authors of the bill emphasize that despite the current fines, bloggers still place advertising in banned social networks. Thus, deputy Anatoly Vyborny believes that minimal fines do not have the proper impact on bloggers. According to him, income from advertising on banned platforms is many times higher than the amount of the fine. He also emphasizes that the platforms are used to spread disinformation and other harmful materials, which makes it important to stop any financial flows to them.
According to experts, increasing fines will affect advertising strategies. Advertising should bring 50-100% more value so that the risks are justified.
The founder of the Legal Center for Bloggers and Agencies, Anastasia Krasnikova, believes that the deputies' initiative may negatively affect conscientious market participants. In her opinion, new rules should be introduced gradually and in cooperation with industry representatives.
We consider this initiative to be negative for the market, since the practice of its application has not yet been formed and will be developed in the next three years.
At the same time, the founder of the Breaking Trends communication agency, secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia, Yulia Zagitova, points out that the need to create our own communication platforms is becoming increasingly important. Although increasing fines will not solve all the problems, it may be a step towards creating a sustainable media ecosystem in the country.
Practice shows that it is difficult to change real behavior patterns with bans: influencers will look for workaround formats, go into native integrations, work through closed channels, and advertising in foreign social networks will still continue to exist, just in less obvious forms. It is physically impossible to control each such case.
