Official: Russia may create special courts for social net cases

MOSCOW, Sep 10 (PRIME) -- Russia could create specialized courts in the future to consider cases regarding social networks and the digital right in the whole, the president’s special representative on the digital and technological development Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Local Internet company Mail.Ru Group, which owns popular social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, earlier triggered a discussion on amnesty for the accused of actions in social networks, including likes, reports, and publication of images.

“It’s the question of elaboration of practices. I definitely agree with the statement that dynamic actions in social networks threaten the society. It’s certain. Partially, it’s manipulation of the conscience,” Peskov said.

“We see how such stable political communities like the establishment of the U.S. amazingly react to dynamic actions in social networks. This is why this issue does exist, and we should work out mechanisms of response to such things.”

The practice of criminal cases for reposts and likes in social networks showed that the current system cannot be applied, and a subtly-tuned mechanism of assessment should exist, and it can be created only on the basis of practice, he said.

“I think it’s important to look at the whole array of cases we’ve received and separate those reposts and memes that led to negative consequences from those that were used just for likes.”

“I admit that in the future we should elaborate in our court system specialized institutions that would accumulate relevant expertise. I think that the way it works today is not very much effective. The court system earlier singled out arbitrage, courts of the commerce right. Along the development of the digital right, I think specialized institutions will appear.”

Such courts are not the question of today, he added.

End