The authorities’ propensity to crackdown on social media users for their activity with supposedly unlawful content has become excessive even in the taste of such an established and little opposition-minded Internet business as Mail.Ru Group.
The group dominates the Russian social media scene with its properties VK (Vkontakte) and OK (Odnoklassniki). Listed on the LSE, the group has among its main shareholders Alisher Usmanov, a Russian billionaire who is often regarded as Kremlin-friendly.
“We’re witnessing, in many regions of our country, a growing practice of opening criminal cases against users for ‘likes’ or reposts on social networks. In many cases, [this practice] obviously does not correspond to any real threat, and the authorities’ reaction to comments or memes is unjustifiably harsh,” stated the group on August 6, calling for “changes” to the legislation and court practice.
The statement was followed by another one just a week later by VK itself, with its managing director Andrey Rogozov expressing “strong disapproval” of “unfounded persecutions” for Internet posts.
“Law enforcement agencies often fail to take into account context, not distinguishing between posts and reposts, and treating images with questionable jokes like incitements to dangerous crimes,” Rogozov wrote.
Criminal online jokes
One of the latest examples of such persecutions took place in late July in Siberian city Barnaul. As reported by Meduza.io, local officials opened felony extremism cases against Maria Motuznaya, a 23-year-old woman, and Daniil Markin, a 19-year-old man. The former had published jokes about religion and race, the latter had shared a meme about Jon Snow’s resurrection on Game of Thrones.
“The vast majority of criminal cases against Russian social-media users are filed against users of Vkontakte, which surrenders virtually all personal data whenever requested by law enforcement, according to human rights activists,” notes Meduza.
From 2011 to 2017, the number of prosecutions for “extremism,” “provocation to hatred” and “offence to human dignity” – both online and in other contexts – rose from 149 to 604, according to official data cited by Kommersant.
Among other possible legal motives for prosecutions are such vaguely defined ones as “offence to religious sensitivity” and the “propaganda” of non traditional sexual relations among minors.
While conceding that some court decisions on “extremism” are erroneous, the Ministry of Interior considers that most indictments are legitimate, since they target people who “really provoke negative developments and destabilize the situation in the country.”
Update: On August 14, between 150 and 200 people in Barnaul, including Lyudmila Suslova, a deputy in the regional legislative assembly, rallied in support of Markin and Motuznaya, reported Meduza. The recent prosecutions attracted attention from such public figures as popular rapper Oxxxymiron, who twitted in support of Motuznaya and “hundreds of others,” and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who conceded that “there are still cases [of prosecution] that can challenge common sense.”
