MOSCOW, April 12 (RAPSI) – The State Duma passed in the third and final reading on Thursday a bill specifying regulations for blocking of information defaming a citizen or a company.

According to the bill, if a person disseminates defamatory information and does not voluntary remove it within a certain time, a court may ask authorities to restrict access to a website in question.

A ruling to block a website containing discrediting information may be given by court bailiffs, an explanatory note to the bill reads.

Authors of the bill note that Russian citizens have a right to request removal of damaging information against them after its publication online, but specifics of the Internet require special mechanisms to make that possible.