Kolokoltsev spoke about the removal of advertising drug stores from major Telegram channels

Today, a meeting of the State Anti-Drug Committee was held under the chairmanship of Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. The minister reported on the work done to block drug advertising on the Internet.

According to Minister Kolokoltsev, the number of offenses suppressed by the internal affairs bodies related to the promotion of prohibited substances has almost doubled. Since the fall of last year, illegal content has been completely removed from 17 Telegram channels, the audience of which ranged from 150 thousand to 4 million users, he added.

“Last year alone, the number of decisions taken by Roskomnadzor to block resources containing information on the distribution of drugs increased by 20%. As a result, access to 83 thousand sites and individual Internet pages was closed, ”said Vladimir Kolokoltsev (his words are quoted by website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs).

The Minister expressed the opinion that the sanctions for the dissemination of information about prohibited substances are insufficient, tougher measures and amendments to the legislation are required.

Mr. Kolokoltsev noted that the growth in the volume of domestic production of “synthetics” causes concern. The number of identified crimes related to the manufacture of illicit substances increased by 6.5%, and the number of investigated drug crimes almost doubled.

Director of the Safe Internet League Ekaterina Mizulina last December informed in his Telegram channel about the problem of distribution of drug stores advertising in large Telegram channels. Most of the audience of these channels are young people, Ms. Mizulina wrote, so such advertising can be regarded as the sale of narcotic drugs using the Internet. She said that the Safe Internet League monitors such publications and sends information to law enforcement agencies.

Elizaveta Belyakova