A new Russian law mandates that internet platforms verify new users' identities via state-approved systems before granting access, starting in December 2023
President Putin has signed off on legal amendments that threaten to destroy online anonymity, crush free speech, and stifle innovation. Forums: r/privacy Forums: r/privacy : Putin Outlaws Anonymity: Identity Verification For Online Services, Bypass Advice a Crime - TorrentFreak
Context & Ripple Effects
This law is the latest step in a six-year escalation of Kremlin control over the Russian internet. It began with the 2017 VPN ban and messenger identity rules, then moved to content policing through the fake-news and insult laws of 2019, and to infrastructure control with the sovereign-internet bill that lets the Kremlin disconnect from the global web.
What changes now is the chokepoint: instead of targeting tools or content after the fact, the state moves upstream to registration itself, requiring every platform to verify new users through state-approved systems before granting access. The December 2023 deadline lands on top of earlier pressure on foreign platforms, including fines over data storage and the 2021 law forcing large foreign tech companies to open local offices.
First-order effects
- Every platform serving new Russian users must integrate state-approved identity verification by December 2023 or deny registration — anonymous sign-up ends for services that comply, and the named enforcement target in coverage is anyone sharing bypass advice.
Second-order effects
- Foreign platforms already fined over data-localization demands face a choice between building verification into their Russian flows, restricting new registrations, or exiting — while VPN providers, whose products were banned in 2017, become the default workaround and its distribution a legal risk.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Russia completes a layered control stack — identity at registration, content rules, data localization, and a disconnectable network — that other governments studying 'sovereign internet' models can copy piece by piece, making verified identity a structural feature of national internets rather than an anomaly.
The trend: Russia is assembling a full-stack model of national internet control — identity verification, content law, data localization, and network disconnection — that converts anonymity from a default into a regulated exception.