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- Food blog: fines for advertising on banned social networks will increase to one million
Food blog: fines for advertising on banned social networks will increase to one million
Fines for advertising on banned foreign social networks are proposed to be increased to 1 million rubles. Izvestia got acquainted with the draft law prepared by United Russia deputies, which is sent for review to the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Interior Ministry. The document provides for an increase in sanctions for individuals to 80 thousand rubles (currently 2-2.5 thousand), and for legal entities to 1 million rubles (instead of 200-500 thousand). The authors of the initiative believe that the current small fines do not stop bloggers from advertising, so the punishment needs to be tightened. How the initiative is assessed in the industry is described in the Izvestia article.
They want to toughen penalties for bloggers
Facebook Instagram and Facebook (owned by Meta, a company whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) may be penalized for placing ads on foreign social networks. They may increase up to 1 million rubles. As Izvestia found out, such a bill was sent for recall to the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs by Deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security, deputy from the United Russia faction Anatoly Vyborny.
The law "On Advertising" prohibits the distribution of advertisements on prohibited foreign social networks. It was introduced in 2025 in order to curb the sponsorship of platform owners used for the targeted dissemination of anti-Russian content, disinformation, extremist and terrorist acts, fraud and other illegal acts. Administrative responsibility for its violation comes under Part 1 of Article 14.3 of the Administrative Code, which provides for the imposition of a fine on citizens in the amount of 2 thousand to 2.5 thousand rubles, on officials — from 4 thousand to 20 thousand, on legal entities — from 100 thousand to 500 thousand.
Currently, small fines for violating the established ban do not provide a proper preventive effect from advertising on prohibited resources, according to an explanatory note to the bill (Izvestia has it). At the same time, the income received from such activities is many times higher than the amount of punishment, the document emphasizes.
In this regard, it is proposed to toughen the punishment: for citizens to set fines in the amount of 50 thousand to 80 thousand rubles, for officials — from 80 thousand to 150 thousand, for legal entities — from 500 thousand to 1 million.
— Obviously, a fine of 2.5 thousand rubles does not stop anyone — bloggers still place ads on banned social networks. For them, this is a symbolic amount compared to the income from integrations, which includes hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of rubles," Anatoly Vyborny explained to Izvestia the need to increase punishment.
He also noted that in the context of the information war against Russia unleashed by the West, banned platforms are actively used to purposefully spread disinformation, extremism, fraud traps, recruiters and an anti-Russian agenda.
— That's why access to them was limited. But bloggers, by placing ads there, reopen this "Pandora's box", legalizing their presence and contributing to further promotion and popularization. Consciously or not, they thereby provide an influx of financial resources to foreign organizations recognized as extremist and undesirable in Russia, therefore we are obliged to stop any, even indirect financing of such structures," the deputy explained.
As Izvestia wrote, despite the ban, bloggers continue to advertise on these social networks. Some of them do this openly and are not afraid to even mention manufacturers of goods and services, but there are also those who try to circumvent the law: they do not formally designate such posts, submitting them in the format of personal advice or recommendations. Often, such content is posted in stories that disappear after 24 hours, which further complicates control.
A story repost on Instagram can cost from 7 thousand rubles, Izvestia found out after talking with some of the microbloggers. According to them, it is not dangerous to advertise there, since after 24 hours the story will disappear. But on TikTok, which is not prohibited, but works with restrictions, prices are already 9 thousand rubles. Comboservices — rils, a repost in stories + TikTok + YouTube + Telegram will cost 16 thousand already.
Izvestia sent requests to the agencies asking them to comment on the prospects for supporting the bill.
Will tougher penalties help
Each increase in the fine affects the decision to publish an advertisement: now it must bring 50-100% more value so that the risk is considered justified by the violator himself or agreed upon by lawyers within the organization, Yaroslav Meshalkin, an expert on digital communications, told Izvestia.
According to him, therefore, the number of violations will decrease, but it is still difficult to estimate how much. Regulators also understand this, so they act in stages and monitor the results.
"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," Anastasia Krasnikova, founder of the Legal Center for Bloggers and Agencies, told Izvestia.
According to her, bona fide market participants may suffer in the pursuit of stricter regulation, as the experience of introducing new regulations shows, therefore they should be introduced in stages and in close communication with the industry. At the same time, the existing regulation is already sufficient, she added.
Yulia Zagitova, founder of the Breaking Trends communication agency and secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, on the contrary, believes that the initiative is based on logic: the government seeks to encourage the transition of influencers and brands to Russian platforms, and without the development of its own media environment, the ecosystem really remains vulnerable.
— Sovereign communication platforms are no longer an option, but a necessity if we want to build a sustainable market in the long term. But at the same time, the increase in fines alone is unlikely to be a decisive tool. Practice shows that it is difficult to change real patterns of behavior with prohibitions: influencers will look for workarounds, go into native integrations, work through closed channels, and advertising in foreign social networks will continue to exist anyway, just in less obvious forms. It is physically impossible to control each such case," the expert believes.
Therefore, according to her, there is a risk that stricter regulation will not lead to the desired effect, but will only complicate the work of the market. Instead of operating through the "fine — fear" system, it would be more effective to enhance the attractiveness of domestic platforms with functionality, audiences, and monetization. It is necessary to create conditions under which it will be profitable and comfortable for bloggers and advertisers to work within the country.
In the long term, the focus should be on developing strong media platforms and a competent PR strategy to promote them, Yulia Zagitova believes. Only a combination of the right tools, economic motivation and high-quality infrastructure can really change the logic of the market, and not just formally limit it, she believes.
The law banning advertising on prohibited foreign resources was a necessary step in order to finally transfer advertising activities to domestic platforms, said Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications.
— But we see that individual bloggers continue to advertise there, often deliberately circumventing the law. This suggests that it is necessary not only to improve control mechanisms, but also, possibly, to consider the issue of adjusting administrative measures. It is important that responsibility is commensurate with the scale of violations and the economic impact of them," he told Izvestia.
According to him, the main goal is not to punish, but to build transparent and fair rules. The law should not just fix violations, but form a culture of responsibility in the media environment. Then the advertising market will develop steadily, and the audience's trust in Russian platforms will only grow, the deputy concluded.
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