Legal amendments will formalise Alexander Lukashenko's restrictions that monitor users' visits to blacklisted websites
The government in Belarus has approved a law tightening official control over the internet.
The legal amendments enacted on Friday bar Belarussian businesses from using outside internet resources. They also formalise restrictions introduced by the authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko. These required internet service providers to monitor users and report them to authorities if they visit opposition websites blacklisted by the government.
Lukashenko, whom some call "Europe's last dictator", has been in office since 1994. He has consistently suppressed opposition and cracked down on independent media. He won another term in a December 2010 vote that was marred by fraud and criticised by international observers. The vote also sparked large protests that police brutally dispersed.