Not Free Internet: the Governmental Control over the Internet in Autocracies

The work reveals the problem of control over the Internet in the conditions of an authoritarian regime on the example of Russia. The use of the term "authoritarian regime" in relation to Russia, we declare that the restriction imposed on users of the Russian segment of the Internet - Runet, a submission on the authoritarian nature of power. In the course of the work, a discourse analysis of Russian Internet legislation was adopted, adopted in the period from 2012 to 2016, which identified two areas of problems of excessive regulation related to control over the opposition. First, excessive blocking sites, and secondly, criminal prosecutions against individuals who publish records and make "reposts" in social networks. In the case study, cases of applying new regulations and rules regarding specific disclosure requirements were considered. Content analysis provides information that for pro-state media the asymmetry of information is the decisive factor that helps to ensure the stability of the domestic socio-political situation.