Watchdog says social nets deleting illegal rallies calls to children

MOSCOW, Jan 28 (PRIME) -- Russian and foreign social networks have started to delete calls to teenagers to take part in unsanctioned rallies actively on request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the communications service said on Thursday in a statement.

“Due to appearance of new calls to participate in unsanctioned events, the administrations of social networks were notified about the necessity to delete banned information,” the watchdog said.

Deletion decreased the number of children in rallies and avoid their being hurt significantly.

“The communications service continues to cooperate with the Internet platforms to stop involvement of minors in illegal mass events, which entail risks, among others, in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authority said.

The service said on Wednesday it would fine social networks Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, VKontakte, and Odnoklassniki and video hosting YouTube for the failure to comply with a request to prevent expansion of calls to teenagers to take part in unsanctioned rallies on January 23.

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