Russian photographer faces criminal charges for authoring LGBT fanfiction

A photographer from the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals has been charged with “distributing pornography” for publishing fanfiction she wrote in 2022 that describes same-sex relationships, state-affiliated tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) has reported.

The photographer, a 35-year-old woman who has only been named as Alexandra Z, had her home raided by police, who seized books she had written, as well as her laptops, an iPad and two smartphones.

“Psychological and linguistic analysis showed signs of pornographic content in Alexandra’s work,” KP reported, adding that “law enforcement officers found online fanfiction about unconventional love”.

If found guilty, Alexandra, who has no previous convictions, could face up to six years in prison. Friends told KP that Alexandra’s fan fiction was merely a hobby.

In February, a Moscow court fined the popular storytelling platform Wattpad, which allows its users to publish and read original fiction and fanfiction, 3.5 million rubles (€38,800) for refusing to delete “works about same-sex relations”.

Russia’s continued censorship of LGBT content was prompted by legislation adopted in December 2022 providing for fines of up to 4 million rubles (€44,000) for disseminating so-called “LGBT propaganda”, as well as a Supreme Court ruling in November 2023 that branded the “international LGBT movement” an “extremist organisation”, effectively banning it and making LGBT activity punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

In April 2023, Russia blocked another major fanfiction archive, Archive of Our Own, which featured fanfiction written in multiple languages, after the platform refused to take down “pornographic stories written in Russian that involve teenagers”. A year later, the Russian authorities blocked Ficbook, one of Russia’s largest online fanfiction archives, on the same ground.