The St. Petersburg International Law Forum (PMUF) discussed the possibility of recognizing some emoji with extremist content. Elina Sidorenko, a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of Russia, as well as the head of the White Internet ANO, made the initiative.
Sidorenko noted that under the White Internet, a discussion of the issue of regulating the legal status of Emoji has already begun. Belarus was the first country to officially recognize some emoji with extremist content. Despite the fact that in Russia they have not yet come to this step, Sidorenko emphasized that the grounds for such measures exist. The human rights activist spent a parallel between Emoji and reposts, noting that the public danger of the latter has already been recognized. She emphasized that the situation with Emoji is similar, hinting at the potential threat that these pictures can carry.
Elina Sidorenko clarified that we are not talking about likes and diesella, which the courts are sometimes recognized as legally significant actions, but about “pictures that can be radical in nature.” The human rights activist believes that for such images it is necessary to provide for legal liability.
She also noted that extremist content is often borderline, and language models do not always help to identify it. According to her, this creates a situation where content can be described as “bad, but legal.” It is in this segment that, according to Sidorenko, that the main propaganda system is formed and the visualization of youth occurs.