The police and the prosecutor's office issued a "warning about the inadmissibility of violating the law" to fashion blogger Veronika Loginova for using Facebook and Instagram. She reported this to Roskomsvoboda.
Loginova said that the police came to her parents' house. The blogger herself is not in Russia.
Veronica provided Roskomsvoboda with a copy of the warning from the prosecutor's office. The document states that “taking actions to attract users to Facebook and Instagram, as well as posting materials there, including advertising, can be considered as a form of participation in the activities of an extremist organization and inducement to participate in it.” And for "inclining to participate" in the "activities of an extremist organization" real terms are provided.
According to the head of the legal practice of Roskomsvoboda, Sargis Darbinyan, this is the first case of persecution of a Russian citizen based on the mere use of Instagram.
“This, of course, is not at all what the prosecutors promised when they recognized Instagram and Facebook as extremist, when they publicly stated that end users would not be affected by this decision. Now it turns out that it does. After all, the prosecutor warns that for recruiting a blogger faces 4 to 8 years in prison under Part 1.1. Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And for direct participation in the activities of such an organization, another 2 to 6 years are threatened under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Veronika Loginova talks about fashion, psychology and business creation in her blogs on YouTube and Instagram. She does not write about politics.
In March, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow recognized the Meta company (which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram and the WhatsApp messenger) as an extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia.
According to the prosecutor, under the guise of commercial activities, the Meta company spreads calls for violence against citizens and poses a threat to the constitutional order. The requirements did not apply to the WhatsApp messenger, noting that the messenger does not have a function for public dissemination of information.
