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MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a blogger to five years in jail for what it said was his extremist activity on the Internet after he urged people to attend a protest against high transport fares and criticized Russian intervention in Ukraine.

Vadim Tyumenstev, 35, from the Siberian region of Tomsk, was also banned from using the Internet for three years in a case which Russian human rights activists said violated his rights to a proper defense.

Tyumentsev irked local authorities in Tomsk with a series of blogs in which he accused them of corruption and incompetence. He had also sharply criticized pro-Kremlin separatists in eastern Ukraine, saying he did not see why ordinary Russians should go and fight with them.

A statement from Tomsk's regional court said Tyumentsev had urged people to overthrow the authorities, a reference to an appeal he made for people to attend an unsanctioned meeting to protest against a hike in local bus fares.

He had also urged people to take hostile action against Ukrainian refugees, the court said, referring to a video in which he complained about their presence in Tomsk and said they should be deported.

Footage of the sentencing showed Tyumentsev, clad in a thick gray sweater, standing in a courtroom cage making notes as he listened to the verdict. He said he would appeal.

The Memorial human rights group said the jail sentence was "outrageous" and called for the verdict to be overturned.

Pavel Pryanikov, a prominent Russian blogger, said the verdict recalled the excesses of the Stalin era and such behavior should not be a criminal offense. "We have quietly returned to Stalinist sentencing for 'thought crimes'," he wrote.

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HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam sought to discourage its internet-savvy public on Wednesday from reading Web postings that disparaged its Communist Party, warning of an increase in "toxic" activity just weeks away from its scheduled leadership shakeup.

Using its new Facebook page, the government vowed to tackle social media criticism of the party without interrupting the Internet ahead its five-yearly congress in January, and said most attacks originated from outside of the country.

"These pages are most distorting and talking bad about our party's leaders, government and policies," Truong Minh Tuan, the deputy minister of information and communications, wrote in the Facebook posting.

"We expect more such bad pages appearing around the congress and election."

Managing the Internet, especially social media, has become a tricky balancing act for a party that for 40 years has tightly controlled Vietnam but risks upsetting its public if it introduces sweeping China-style Web restrictions.

Discussion of politics remains strictly taboo and authorities have dealt harshly with online dissent, with rights groups angered by the arrests, intimidation and jailing of dozens of bloggers and activists.

The Internet is hugely popular and used by 49 percent of the 90-million-strong population, of which two-thirds is under the age of 30, fuelling strong smartphone sales.

A third of Vietnamese use Facebook, a figure cited by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last month when he issued a 1,100-word open letter appealing to the public to use the platform responsibly. Dung was the first among the party elite to advocate the use of Facebook by the government.

The Communist Party congress will see a new party chief and powerful politburo elected by members of its Central Committee, but the identities of potential leadership candidates remain a tightly kept secret.

Much is riding on the congress, which is closely watched by foreign governments and investors keen to get a read on a process that could determine Vietnam's foreign policy trajectory and pace and scope of its pro-business reforms.

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Reuters) - Twitter Inc has clarified its definition of abusive behaviour that will prompt it to delete accounts, banning "hateful conduct" that promotes violence against specific groups.

The social media company disclosed the changes on Tuesday in a blog post, following rising criticism it was not doing enough to thwart Islamic State's use of the site for propaganda and recruitment.

"As always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs, but we will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse," Megan Cristina, director of Trust and Safety, said in the blog.

The new rules do not mention Islamic State or any other group by name.

"You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or disease," according to the revised rules. (http://bit.ly/1MFueNn)

The company previously used a more generic warning that banned users from threatening or promoting "violence against others."

J.M. Berger, co-author of a March 2015 Brookings Institute "census" of ISIS Twitter use, which found that the militant group had operated at least 46,000 accounts from September to December of last year, said the change would lead to more aggressive reporting of abuse by users who flag accounts that break the rules.

"The new definition is much clearer and takes some of the guesswork out of determining if a Tweet violates the rules," Berger said.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who heads the Digital Terrorism and Hate Project at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said that "terrorists and hate groups will leave" if Twitter enforces the revised rules.

He said that would require blocking repeat offenders from setting up new accounts with altered handles and remove thousands of existing counts that violate the policy.

Tuesday's announcement did not disclose changes to Twitter's enforcement strategy. A company spokesman declined to say if any were in the works.

The new rules also said that Twitter might respond to reports that somebody is considering "self-harm" by contacting the person to express concern and provide contact information to mental health practitioners.

Lawmakers in Congress proposed legislation earlier this month that would require social media operators, including Twitter and Facebook Inc, to notify federal authorities of any detected "terrorist activity."

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China's Xi urges cooperation among nations in governance of global internet
By Catherine Cadell | WUZHEN, CHINA

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called for greater cooperation among nations in developing and governing the internet, while reiterating the need to respect so-called "cyber sovereignty".

Speaking at an internet conference in Wuzhen, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, Xi and propaganda chief Liu Yunshan signaled a willingness to step up China's role in global internet governance, seeking to rectify "imbalances" in the way standards across cyberspace are set.

"The development of the internet knows no international boundaries. The sound use, development and governance of the internet thus calls for closer cooperation," Xi said in a video message at the start of China's third World Internet Conference.


While China's influence in global technology has grown, its ruling Communist Party led by Xi has presided over broader and more vigorous efforts to control, and often censor, the flow of information online.

China infamously operates the so-called "Great Firewall", the world's most sophisticated online censorship system, to block and attack Internet services the government deems unsavory.

Xi repeated China's pledge to "promote equitable global internet governance" while upholding "cyber sovereignty", or the right of countries to determine how they want to manage the internet.

China's rubber stamp parliament adopted a controversial cybersecurity law this month that overseas critics say could shut foreign businesses out of various sectors in China.

More than 40 international groups and technology organizations have condemned the law, which introduces sweeping surveillance measures and local data storage requirements.

Beijing says the law was designed to root out cybercecurity threats in "critical" industries, and not to target foreign businesses.

China hopes to cooperate with other countries to develop international rules and standards for the internet "in a more balanced way", said Liu, a member of the Party's leading Politburo Standing Committee.


"There can't be national security for one country while there is insecurity in another. (Countries) can't seek their own so-called 'absolute security' while sacrificing the security of another country," Liu said.