Ideally - be silent

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According to “network freedoms”, in 2022, about 800 cases of criminal prosecution for posts, reposts and statements on social networks were identified in Russia. This is an absolute record over the past 15 years of observation. The laws on anti -war censorship adopted last year oblige Russians to criticize the armed forces and actions of the authorities abroad. Network freedoms also counted almost two thousand cases of bringing to administrative responsibility, including the spread of extremist materials and symbols of prohibited organizations. There is no data for 2023.

One of the vivid cases of persecution for anti-war statements was a criminal case against a 56-year-old resident of Yaroslavl Svetlana Zotova . She was accused of justifying terrorism and extremism and calls for them for three comments, with criticism of power and supporting the undermining of the Kerch bridge, left in telegram channels. Zotova did not confirm that it was she who left those comments. Nevertheless, the court found her guilty and sentenced her to a fine of 350 thousand rubles and a ban on two years of administration of Internet resources.

“You should stop public activity and delete accounts in social networks - this is how one of the main advice of a lawyer in modern Russia sounds,” says Stanislav Seleznev. - The practice of holding liable for posts in social networks or for messages in messengers has spread in Russia for a long time. Now it is growing and exposing. The algorithms that use the Center for Combating Extremism and Roskomnadzor can check publications and reposts 10-15 years ago. A similar story with once considered harmless comments in the public chats of Telegram and Watsap. ”

According to Seleznev, there are special bots that “sift” the history of public chats of a decade ago and form reports for law enforcement agencies. But not only open chats are dangerous: some participants in the closed house, district, parent, professional and other chats can manually view the history of correspondence, make screenshots and direct complaints. And then provide their phones to police officers to fix correspondence in chats.

“So offend one of the chat participants, for example, refusing to hand over warm socks or throw yourself to the needs of the mobilized, and he or she will give a chat a couple of years ago, finds some of your ambiguous statements and direct the complaint to the police or to the FSB. Those, in turn, will be required to respond to a complaint, ”says Seleznev.

You can fight off the accusations only if your account is absolutely anonymous - that is, it has no relations with you by name, photo, location and registered when using:

-SIM cards for someone else's name or even a foreign telecom operator (in some countries a tourist card can be bought without submission of documents);

- anonymous disposable, purchased for cash mobile phone;

- installation of applications for communication in the virtual operating system, competently protected by VPN.

The older the account, the more difficult it is to hide his connection with a specific person. “The existing norms of the law are formulated and applied in such a way that neither a regular user nor even an experienced lawyer can predict the likelihood of criminal proceedings. Therefore, to the question of how to safely discuss acute topics on the Internet, there is only one answer: “Today - no way”. ”

How to protect the Instagram account?
- Remove the posts
- Clean the subscriptions,
- Clean the direct.

Storyis after 24 hours on Instagram are not visible, but they are not removed. However, they can be removed manually: click “Profile” → Three stripes → “Your Activity/Your Actions” → “Archive” → Select every story manually → “Delete”.

You can also delete your likes, comments and answers to other people's storiza: click “Profile” → Three stripes → “Your Activity/Your Actions” → “Comments” (select each comment manually and delete, manually remove every like).

How to protect an account in Watsap?
- Leave the chats that can be dangerous;
-Set up the two-factor authorization: click “Settings” → “Account” → “Two-Factor Authentication/Two-step check” → Invent a Pin-Parol of six digits;
- Configure the auto -loss of messages: Click “Settings” → “Privacy/Privacy” → “Timer of default messages/automatic messages” → “7 days”;
- Set the privacy: click “Settings” → “Privacy/Privacy” → “Last time online” → Select “Only my contacts” or “Nobody”;
-Protect the calls: click “Settings” → “Privacy/Privacy” → “IP protection during calls” or “extended” → “Protect IP addresses during calls”;
- If desired, you can establish a ban on calls from unknown numbers: click “Privacy” → “Calls” → “Disable the sound for unknown numbers”.

How to protect an account in a telegram?
- Put a two -factor authentication: click "Privacy" → "Cloud Password";
- Delete the nickname: Click the “Profile” → “User Name” → Wipe out;
- Change your name in Telegram so that it is not connected with yours;
- Change the avatar, delete all the old photos where you are;
- Hide from all the phone number: click “Confidentiality” → “Phone number” → Nobody.

Independent journalist Andrei Zakharov noted that the removal of Nick in Telegram will not protect from a complete deanon: “You can find out an aid of a person even with a nickname erased (for example, through a web version of a telegram), and then [you can] go to the bot [by the breakdown of the information] and find out the phone number,” writes Zakharov. He recommends that a separate telegram account for commenting on socio-political channels or refrain from such comments, especially in small regional chats. It is there, according to Zakharov’s observation, that law enforcement officers most carefully read comments: “They need not just another victim from somewhere, but a victim from their region so that you can put a“ stick ”.”

Ideally - be silent

The instruction "cold", how safely say on social networks and not come across to the Russian authorities