Russian deputies proposed to abolish criminal liability for reposts or sharing of extremist publications or materials in World Wide Web. Some people just make reposts of information published mostly in social networks and as a consequence bear criminal liability because technically under current Russian law it is dissemination of prohibited information. Russian Kremlin upheld this idea.
According to the proposal of Russian deputies, the criminal liability is excluded for actions or deeds if they were targeted to arousal of hate or enmity, or they were targeted to humiliation of human dignity or group of persons in case if such actions or deeds are not linked with application of violence, were not committed by organised group of persons and for commitment of such deeds or actions the official position has been not used.
The press secretary of Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, has clarified that “the prosecution for such information should not take hypertrophic forms”. “The formalistic approach is not appropriate when it takes hypertrophic forms. It is necessary to regulate. But it does not mean that it is appropriate to contribute dissemination of such information, it is necessary to protect citizens from cases, which if are not curious, but are resonant,” – he said.
The Russian ministry of communication has also upheld the legislative proposal. “We unambiguously uphold the initiative of Russian deputies. It is what concerns decriminalization,” – said the representative of MinCom. But the Russian Supreme Court disagreed with deputies. According to court’s position the proposal is not harmonized with legislator’s approach.