The Cabinet of Ministers did not support the initiative to limit penalties for likes

The Russian government has prepared a negative response to a bill banning administrative liability for liking posts that discredit the army or incite hatred. Vedomosti has read the review.

This initiative was launched by New People earlier in March. As noted by the first deputy chairman of the information policy committee, Anton Tkachev, the bill proposes to supplement Articles 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (inciting hatred or enmity) and 20.3.3. (discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) with a note. It proposes to indicate that the actions provided for by these articles cannot be recognized as “expression of emotions in the form of tagging publications on social networks in order to hold citizens accountable.” Under both offenses, it is possible to initiate a criminal case if such an offense is repeated more than twice during the year. In May, New People reported that the initiative supports Human Rights Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova.

The government in its response drew attention to the fact that the explanatory note to the bill does not contain statistical data that would indicate the presence of systemic problems of law enforcement and would confirm the need for changes. In addition, the legislation does not define the concepts of “expression of emotions” and “marking publications”, and therefore the proposed draft does not meet the requirements of clarity and may lead to ambiguous interpretation in practice.

The Cabinet of Ministers also reminds that in terms of the elements provided for in these articles, the position of the Supreme Court on the need to take into account the totality of all the circumstances of the offense when determining whether or not a person has direct intent to incite hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity when posting materials on the Internet, may be applicable.

Other Duma factions had mixed reactions to the initiative, noted in March Kommersant. Deputy head of the LDPR faction Yaroslav Nilov said that the party has repeatedly opposed ideological assessment articles in the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code, and deputy from “A Just Russia – For Truth” Nikolai Novichkov spoke, on the contrary, for tightening responsibility. Deputy head of the United Russia faction Evgeniy Revenko said then that the party is focused on solving other issues and tasks “that really concern our voters.”