The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of Dagestan, an autonomous republic in Southern Russia, has created an anonymous hotline for citizens to report “extremist content” found online.
The campaign targets the “propaganda or public justification of terrorism; hate speech related to ethnic origin or religious orientation; and other types of prohibited content.”
A video clip makes it clear that the authorities are targeting social media posts and ‘likes’ as a priority.
While the reports may be provided anonymously, identified users have a chance to be rewarded with pricy smartphones. These prizes – intended for “the most active users of the hotline” – include a 32-gigabyte Apple iPhone SE, a Xaomi Redmi 5, and a Xaomi Redmi 4A.
The website, however, does not specify when the contest ends.
The initiative involves the Dagestani interior ministry and prosecutor’s office as well as the Federal Security Service (FSB, Russia’s secret service).
The Russian authorities’ propensity to crackdown on social media users for their activity with supposedly unlawful content raised questions recently.
Thus, in early August, Mail.Ru Group publicly stated that, “in many cases, [this practice] obviously does not correspond to any real threat, and the authorities’ reaction to comments or memes is unjustifiably harsh,” while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov conceded that “there are still cases [of prosecution] that can challenge common sense.”
