Experts assess proposal of Justice Ministry to turn off Internet  under martial law

ArmInfo.The Armenian authorities, having proposed to amend the law "On the legal regime of martial law", are taking steps to legitimize the mistakes made during  the hostilities of 2020-2022. Media expert Artur Papyan announced  this on January 9 at a press conference.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of  Armenia proposed to amend the law "On the legal regime of martial  law", according to which it is envisaged to restrict the operation of  websites when using the World Wide Web under martial law.

According to the expert, with the introduction of amendments, the  reasons for concern becomes much more obvious. It remains, for  example, an open question as to why this or that social network can  be blocked, and not Telegram channels that host information that is  several times much more harmful. According to the expert, it is also  not clear on what principles this or that website will be partially  or completely blocked. In particular, the mobile Internet channel can  be blocked, while the broadband Internet remains unblocked. "It is  obvious that the bill was drafted carelessly, in a slipshod way.  Mobile operators, explaining the reasons for blocking during  hostilities, pointed to the current legislation and the obligation to  cooperate with the National Security Service. Meanwhile, our interest  was not just an interest, it came from the demands of the public, so  that in case of repetition of such cases, we should make smart  decisions," the expert said.

In turn, information security expert Samvel Martirosyan pointed out  that under martial law it is not entirely clear who in reality is the  initiator of the spread of disinformation. According to Martirosyan.  from a substantive point of view,  the proposed amendments are not  within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. Their  beneficiaries could be the Ministry of Defense, the National Security  Service, but not the Ministry of Justice. It is proposed, for  example, to resort to steps aimed at completely shutting down the  Internet. "Before, no one in the country even tried to do this, and  we do not know what consequences this may lead to. Imagine an  official, whose hand is on the "switch", and one fine day he will  decide who should be turned off and who should not," Martirosyan  noted, not excluding the creation of a special commission for this  purpose, endowed with emergency powers.

At the same time, the expert continued, no one knows what can happen  in the event of shutdowns with the banking system, since mobile  communications can completely disappear, especially in the absence of  a law on the protection of the critical infrastructure system. Media  may also be completely blocked. "Essentially, the authorities want to  create mechanisms of influence, but in this case it is necessary to  create a substantive basis for when and why this should be done. The  current Concept of Information Security was adopted back in 2009, but  then only the "Odnoklassniki" website was the main source of  additional information, today the situation is completely different,  and by their decision the authorities leave the issue to the  discretion of the official, whose actions may be arbitrary,"  Martirosyan stressed.