Lawyer warned about fines for obscene language on the Internet

The use of profanity on the Internet may entail administrative liability according to the same standards as in the offline space. Sofya Lukinova, head of the Legal department of VMT Consult, told Izvestia about this on April 2.

"A fine will be imposed for a post or comment recorded by law enforcement agencies that contains profanity and at the same time offends human dignity or contains signs of disrespect for the state or society," she explained.

According to the expert, such actions qualify as minor hooliganism under Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. The fine ranges from 30 to 100 thousand rubles, and in case of repeated violations it may increase to 200-300 thousand rubles. In some cases, administrative arrest for up to 15 days is also provided. At the same time, when determining the punishment, the repetition of the offense and the presence of aggravating circumstances, including signs of extremism or incitement to discord, are taken into account.

Lukinova noted that responsibility can occur regardless of the user's status, both for bloggers with a wide audience and for ordinary citizens. Moreover, violations are recorded not only in public publications, but also in personal correspondence or group chats. In such cases, it may be an insult under Article 5.61 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, where the fine for individuals ranges from 3 to 5 thousand rubles.

The expert also drew attention to the fact that even posting memes with offensive content could be a reason for bringing to justice. At the same time, there is virtually no statute of limitations: if a post is not deleted, it is considered a continuing offense, which allows the user to be held accountable even years later.

What our word will be called back: the State Duma has taken up the defense of the Russian language

There will be fewer Anglicisms and barbarisms.

Vladimir Pakhomov, a researcher at the Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), chairman of the Philological Council of Total Dictation, reported on February 2 that Russians began to use significantly more obscene words in their speech, which threatens the unique layer that includes these units of language. According to him, it is not necessary to eradicate the mat from the language, but it is important to normalize its use. To do this, as Pakhomov added, it is necessary to conduct educational work with native speakers about the appropriate use of this type of vocabulary.

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