How Social Media Posts Led to Imprisonment
In this chapter, I simply want to remind you that in many countries, including Russia, liking and reposting can lead to criminal liability and even imprisonment. You should be very cautious about liking and reposting provocative and illegal posts if you are using a non-anonymous account or your anonymity is not properly configured.
I offer you eleven examples of how ignoring the recommendation described above led to unfortunate consequences. But even before we start getting acquainted with them, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the material Forensic Analysis of Social Media Activity.
First Example
An unenviable fate befell Konstantin, who reposted a post from the "Right Sector" on March 1, 2014, calling on the residents of the Russian Federation to rise against the authorities. And although at that time this organization was not yet banned in Russia, and the author deleted the post after receiving a prosecutor's warning, a criminal case was initiated under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (calls for extremist activities).
Not taking into account that Konstantin was not the author of the post, on September 28, 2015, the court sentenced him to two years probation. From Konstantin's criminal case, we learned that just a day after the post was published, orders were issued to monitor the social media page and listen to incoming and outgoing calls to his mobile phone number.
The case also included reports from the extremism counteraction center, containing information that the blogger has participated in mass opposition actions since 2012, supports Alexei Navalny, and is a member of the "Democratic Choice" party.
All of this is yet another reason to think about the total control we observe in social media. One careless repost can lead to "manual" monitoring of your page, scrutiny of your personal messages, eavesdropping on your mobile phone, and you yourself ending up in the dock.