How Blackmailers Use Your Thoughtless Posts and Reposts
2018 was a year rich in events for Russia: we were banned from using the Telegram messenger, and in attempts to enforce the ban, a significant part of the internet was blocked. However, even this topic faded into the background against the mass of criminal cases for reposts on social networks.
Specially trained individuals, usually employees of law enforcement agencies or students in the law enforcement system, traveled through social media pages, finding illegal content and being professionally offended. They would then file a complaint, law enforcement agencies would make a request to the management of the social network, and a criminal case would be initiated against the owner of the social media page.
Often, such cases ended with real prison sentences, and the page owners ended up in the extremist database with a multitude of resulting restrictions. In most cases, the victims were not extremists and did not aim to humiliate or offend anyone; they simply shared what they considered witty images.
This was also the case for 23-year-old Maria Motuznaya from Barnaul, who, like many of us, was sitting on social media and reposting interesting pictures on her wall, only to forget about them a couple of years later. It turned out that her reposts fell under two articles of the criminal code: "Violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion" and "Incitement of hatred or hostility." And now, years later, they could cost her up to 6 years in prison.
Because of these reposts, one morning three operatives arrived at her home, conducted a full search of the premises, and seized her equipment and information carriers. Only at the police station did Maria learn that everything was happening because of two "memes" published a couple of years ago. The girl had to go through a series of interrogations, her bank accounts were blocked under the article on financing terrorist activities, and she herself ended up in the register of extremists and terrorists. At the time of writing this material, Maria's case was already being heard in court.