Are laws retroactive?

Question

Law in IT

If, for example, in Russia Internet providers are required to scan all traffic for prohibited content, will they check the information stored before the adoption of the law (after all, it is also stored for some time)? Or, for example, the authorities decided to increase the data storage period for Internet providers to 10 years, having made this decision, for example, on July 1, 2020, but then only traffic transmitted after July 1, 2020 will be stored for such a period, or even that which was stored before this date and was planned to be stored for a shorter period?

Answer 1

There are no laws in the field of the Internet :) because there is no such concept in the legislation - "the field of the Internet".
Laws in general, as such, cannot apply to information, because information is an object, and laws are written for subjects :)
Intuitively, your question is clear :) wording :)
As a rule, the law has no retroactive effect. But if you really need it, he will have it :)

Answer 2

Legally - it does not, practically - it does, and often. Recently, a blogger was imprisoned for performing a song on some stream 10 years ago, when it was not yet prohibited by law. No amount of retroactive force has stopped anyone.
There are two options here - either be Vanga and foresee that the country will be banned in many years, and comply with future laws, or change the country to a safer one in terms of law enforcement and double interpretation.

Answer 3

In general, laws do not have retroactive effect, but, as practice shows (we will not involve politics, guess for yourself which Alexey we are talking about), if necessary, they managed to get around this restriction.
Another question is about the technical feasibility of scanning traffic - especially when it comes to https over VPN...
I also note that by a court decision, you can always get access to the necessary information.
And in any case, do not break the law.