The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Altai Territory said that those convicted for memes “have themselves to blame”

The Ombudsman believes that the problem is the “low legal culture” of young people.

The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Altai Territory, Boris Larin, in a conversation with Kommersant, said that those held accountable for reposting “are themselves to blame.” Recently, three cases have been opened in the region for publishing memes on social networks that are recognized as extremist.

According to Larin, users are not aware that they can be held accountable for such publications.

By and large, the people who are involved are themselves to blame for posting such materials, without realizing that they can be held accountable for such publications. This is a low legal culture of young people.

Ombudsman of the Altai Territory Boris Larin on criminal cases for memes

The Ombudsman noted that he does not consider the Altai Territory to be the “most extremist” region of Siberia. In his opinion, we are talking “about the real work of the investigative authorities,” which have begun to pay more attention to this area.

At the end of July, it became known about two criminal cases regarding the publication of extremist materials in the Altai Territory. Barnaul resident Maria Motuznaya said that she was accused of extremism for pictures from her old page on VKontakte. against another city resident A case was opened for reposting pictures of “Harold” and “Jon Snow” from “Game of Thrones.” At the beginning of August, another Barnaul resident became involved in a case of extremism due to the publication of a meme about Patriarch Kirill.

On August 6, Mail.ru Group, which owns the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, called for an amnesty for those convicted of reposting and called for the decriminalization of posts on social networks. The next day, a Tuvan journalist was detained because of posts with swastikas on VKontakte. The woman posted archival photos of World War II on the page.

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