English

Beltelecom technically prepared to restrict access to websites at user’s request, says director general

Beltelecom is technically prepared to restrict access to websites at the user’s request, Kanstantsin Tsikar, director general of the national telecommunications monopoly, said at a news conference held in Minsk on Thursday, as quoted by BelaPAN.

The measure is provided for in a presidential edict, titled “On Measures to Improve the Use of the National Segment of the Internet.” Issued on February 1, the edict took effect on July 1.

Mr. Tsikar said that Beltelecom was capable of limiting the access earlier as well. “The scale of restrictions is at issue,” he said, noting that the company had bought necessary equipment.

He said that he did not expect users to apply for the “service” en masse.

Beltelecom has also made preparations to ensure the enforcement of the edict’s provision that visitors of Internet cafes must produce an ID. Paper and electronic logs were created to register the visitors, he said.

At the same time, Mr. Tsikar noted the need for a “transition period.” For instance, it is still unclear what to do with visitors who are under the age of 16 and don’t have an ID, he said.

As for the requirement for all information networks, systems and other resources of the national segment to get registration by July 1, Mr. Tsikar said that only around a hundred of almost 4,000 websites operating in the segment had failed to submit necessary information. He suggested that they, however, could have done this in the latter half of Wednesday.