Recently mirrors of Belarusian gay sites began appearing on domains such as .net, .org and .com. These information resource sites are doing this to prepare for the introduction of new legislation that will more strictly control the Internet.
On July 1, 2010, President Alexander Lukashenko's Decree No 60 "On Measures to Improve the Use of the National Segment of the Internet Network" will come into effect.
The decree dictates that all providers are required to identify subscriber access devices and save not only this data, but also information about services rendered - in other words, practically the complete history of user web use.
Gay activists fear that this will allow the government to intervene in the personal lives of citizens.
Recall that, according to different estimates, there are currently between 3 to 4 million Internet users in Belarus. In the domain ".by" there are over 25,000 sites.
Translated by Timothy Grishin