14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Russia has a thing against memes, celebrity memes to be more precise.
The Washington Post reveals that Russia’s media agency known as Roskomnadzor, which is in charge of overseeing the media, has announced in an official release that it is illegal “to publish any Internet meme that depicts a public figure in a way that has nothing to do with his personality.”
The article states that this kind of apparently harmless images that users post online actually represent a menace to a public figure’s dignity.
Furthermore, it seems that this is merely an update to an already existing policy which had been there for some time now. This policy resurfaced after a Russian singer filed a lawsuit for having his face used in such a meme.
The singer considered the meme circulating through the Web to be degrading and believed that it might even prejudice his image as an artist.
Needless to say, he won the lawsuit and caused the policy to come back to light through Roskomnadzor’s public announcement on the Russian version of Facebook, known as Vkontakte.
Is Russia trying to control the Web?
One thing is certain: Russian citizens might want to think twice before posting a celebrity meme, even if it’s all in good fun. Otherwise, they could end up in jail over a seemingly silly joke.
It would not be the first time that Russia has tried to tighten its grip on the Internet, especially with Putin’s obsession that the Web is a CIA project, leading him to express his strong dissatisfaction with the threatening machine that Americans could use against him.
However, trying to control the Internet, even for someone as strong as Putin, can turn out to be a difficult, read impossible, task. It is very unlikely that they will manage to limit people’s access to the online environment and even more unlikely for people to just stand by and watch while they do it.