Information Ministry told about measures it takes against harmful content on the Web

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The Ministry of Information and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan shared the tactics it uses to combat illegal content on the Internet, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Internet resources and social networks

Specialists of the Ministry monitor the Internet round-the-clock. In case illegal materials are found, owners of the web pages are notified.

"The Ministry has established contacts with the administrations of the most popular foreign social networks in order to ensure prompt removal of illegal materials", said Mikhail Komissarov, deputy chairman of the State Control Committee in the sphere of communication, informatization and media of the Ministry of Information and Communication at the presser in the CCS. In 2016 more than 110,000 illegal materials were voluntarily removed. Since the beginning of this year 237 VK and Instagram groups containing suicide realted materials have been blocked.

IM's

"Sooner or later, illegal information finds its way from social networks to instant messengers and vice versa. As the result, such information is recorded. In case information is detected, we inform a relevant body, in this case it's the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and this body either confirms or refutes it", explained Mr. Komissarov.

VPN's and anonymizers

According to him, the fight against such ways of bypassing blocks is similar to tilting at windmills. "As we improve our technical capabilities in countering illegal content, there are always alternative methods to bypass these restrictions, like VPN's or anonymizers. In general, we have solved the problem with anonymizers, but again new ones are created constantly, before being detected and blocked. To some extent, it is like tilting at windmills", said Mikhail Komissarov.

Therefore, according to him, the main task of combating illegal content is to limit the risks for the average Internet user of stumbling upon unwanted information by accident.

"It is clear that if a person will purposefully search for certain information, they will find a way to find it. Therefore, we are not talking about a 100 percent cleanup of the Internet, as it is an unrealistic task, but rather about protecting bona fide users from unwanted information", he concluded.