The government of Belarus is set to enforce a law that will have citizens within the country who access foreign websites receive appropriate punishment.
“The newly published Law imposes restrictions on visiting and/or using foreign websites by Belarusian citizens and residents. Under this new Law, the violation of these rules is recognized as a misdemeanor and is punished by fines of varied amounts, up to the equivalent of US$125,” notified the US Library of Congress to acknowledge the rather puzzling judgment. “The Law requires that all companies and individuals who are registered as entrepreneurs in Belarus use only domestic Internet domains for providing online services, conducting sales, or exchanging email messages.”
Belarus, Khatyn. Image: Dave Proffer via Flickr (CC)
The US Library of Congress explains further that the law indicates that citizens of Belarus should not access the website of a company that does not have real presence within the country.
Internet café owners will also have a problem once the government finds them allowing citizens to visit websites ending with top-level domains such as .com.
Internet service providers (ISPs) and Internet café owners are duty-bound to surrender the names of violating citizens and will have to face business closure if government tax collectors or the secret police determine that the behavior is rampant in the area.
