Belarus to toughen control over Internet

Source: Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus — Belarus' authoritarian leader is promising to toughen regulation of the Internet and its users in an apparent effort to exert control over the last fully free medium in the former Soviet state.

"We will identify any person who disseminates lies and dirt, and will make them answer strictly to the law," President Alexander Lukashenko said on Wednesday.

He told journalists that a new Internet bill, proposed on Tuesday, would require the registration and identification of all online publications and of each Web user, including visitors to Internet cafes. Web service providers would have to report this information to police, courts and special services.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994, weeding out opposition and dissidents. All television channels and most print media have become state-controlled, and many of the independent newspapers ordered closed have taken refuge in cyberspace.

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He's a veritable example of democracy compared with, say, that puppet in Afghanistan, or any number of leaders with whom the US enjoys cozy relations.