
It’s now illegal in Russia to share an image of Putin as a gay clown - Jarred
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/04/05/its-now-illegal-in-russia-to-share-an-image-of-putin-as-a-gay-clown/?tid=sm_tw
======
Mendenhall
That only took a couple years to go from internet extremism to gay putin
clowns.

[https://themoscowtimes.com/news/internet-extremism-bill-
pass...](https://themoscowtimes.com/news/internet-extremism-bill-passes-first-
duma-reading-30613)

Something, something, slippery slope?

~~~
draw_down
Well, this is how power functions of course.

------
jluxenberg

      >> A Russian court has ... sentenced 
      >> the culprit to compulsory psychiatric care.

[https://twitter.com/MoscowTimes/status/849413473813639168](https://twitter.com/MoscowTimes/status/849413473813639168)

Eek.

~~~
pinewurst
That's part of the Russian tradition of forced psychiatric care. Sounds like a
case of "sluggish schizophrenia" to me.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union)

------
sremani
[http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/30/countries-where-you-
coul...](http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/30/countries-where-you-could-go-to-
jail-for-calling-the-president-a-dick/)

Not condoning what's happening in Russia, just pointing out how prevalent
similar practices are around the world.

~~~
tptacek
Turkey, Poland, South Africa: these are parts of the same story, of a global
rise in populism-exploiting authoritarian governments.

Thailand, Iran: did we expect better?

The only interesting example here is that you can get in trouble for calling
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands a "whore".

~~~
mamon
Please don't call Poland "authoritarian" \- in fact I would argue that we have
more democracy and civil liberties than

Germany (noone here is censoring newspapers which write unconvenient facts,
like that about immigrants raping women),

Sweden (you won't be arrested for criticizing government's immigration
policy),

UK (noone is trying to make encryption illegal),

or USA (noone here is creating mass surveilance programs, or requiring you to
provide all your online accounts with passwords on entry, or forfeiting your
cash without even charging you with something).

There's just normal, democratically elected government and a bunch of paranoid
celebrities and journalists who make a lot of noise and FUD.

~~~
cpach
No, criticizing the Swedish government’s immigration policy will not get you
arrested.

~~~
gspetr
Sweden has a clear religious bias: a muslim imam can[1] be anti-gay, while a
christian pastor cannot[2].

[1] [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-23/sweden-hate-
speech-...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-23/sweden-hate-speech-just-
imams)

[2] [http://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/al-
mohler/crimi...](http://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/al-
mohler/criminalizing-christianity-swedens-hate-speech-law-1277601.html)

~~~
cpach
What has that got do with the current topic?

Åke Green was not charged for critizing the government, but for denigrating
homosexuals. And the article you cited does not mention that he was aquitted
by the Supreme Court of Sweden.

------
booleandilemma
The Streisand Effect is going to hit this hard.

~~~
deepsun
So what? No one in Russia will start drawing gay-putins, of the fear being
subject to compulsory psychiatric treatment. And no one outside Russia is
going to draw it because they don't care.

~~~
dragonwriter
GIS for "gay Putin" suggest that plenty have already been drawn, and not all
of them seem to be likely Russian in origin.

I kind of suspect that will continue, if not accelerate.

------
gspetr
Things are getting worse every day here, consider these:

[http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-activist-convicted-
reposting-r...](http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-activist-convicted-reposting-
repost-absurd-extremism-semenov/28375569.html)

[http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-supreme-court-review-
convictio...](http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-supreme-court-review-conviction-
video-repost/28338293.html)

------
edko
They would be surprised to know what "putín" means in the slang of many
Spanish-speaking countries.

------
sitkack
Ironic, the list of banned images is hosted on
[http://minjust.ru/ru/node/243787](http://minjust.ru/ru/node/243787)

------
MrZongle2
I can't help but think that almost every future biography of Putin will
mention this law, and the most unflattering ones will contain examples. Sort
of a long-term Streisand Effect.

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
Future Buzzfeed article: "Only 21st century kids will remember these 10 images
of Putin in drag. Number 8 would have gotten you life in prison!"

~~~
MrZongle2
_" Number 8 would have gotten you life in prison!"_

That's _Art Reeducation Camp_ , comrade.

------
ganfortran
LOL, Russian Government apparently don't understand how Internet really works.

~~~
yaakov34
You underestimate them. They've created a web of vaguely worded, overbroad
laws which everybody is violating all the time without even trying. It allows
the government to demand any user's data at any time, to have all Russian ISPs
block access to any site by administrative fiat, and to bring up on charges
anyone they choose. It's been working quite well - not in hermetically
blocking access to some stupid image, but in reducing traffic to opposition
sites by 90% (I believe that this is what they boasted about when they first
blocked access to Navalny's blog) and in distracting a number of people from
their work with endless legal trouble. Not much of a LOL.

~~~
gozur88
Agreed. The value in this kind of censorship isn't that the government can put
troublemakers in jail. It's in scaring everyone into considering how what
they're about to view or write will look to the government years from now,
before they view or write it.

------
hartator
It's also illegal in France to insult officials.

~~~
cmac2992
I believe thats a _was_ not is

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/07/26...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/07/26/yes-
it-really-was-a-crime-in-france-to-insult-the-president-until-this-week-heres-
why/?utm_term=.1a16ba5290bb)

------
pipio21
I don't know how insulting someone, specially if it is the president of the
country should be totally ok.

Freedom of expression should end when the right of others to be respected
starts.

It is not ok in most of the countries of the world.

Certainly in the US when I was living there it was not ok to insult the
President, note the president with capitals because for Americans there is
only one president in the world and it is theirs. The President was a demi
God, like the founding fathers, you better behave or else.

Probably this has changed with Trump and the WaPo, NewYorkTimes, The Economist
and BBC all day trying to shoot him down.

I was a long time Putin critic but now after so long non sequitur, ab hominem,
argumentum ad passiones Westerm Media coverage trying to create a new cold(or
hot) war, I am starting to defend him.

Those newspapers used to be serious but they are taking the way of Reddit(that
used to be as serious as HN). They are blinded by personal hate and becoming
more and more war propaganda.

~~~
samsonradu
Why has this been downvoted?

~~~
Neliquat
Because it is halariously misinformed and not deserving of the respect he
thinks we all should have. It is quite ironic really.

------
chirau
I don't see the big deal. I'm all for it. I know plenty of countries where
such unnecessary and unfounded attempts at publicity and attention are
illegal, including my own home country. Saying he's a gay clown is pretty much
fake news. Everybody hates fake news.

~~~
kafkaesq
_Everybody hates fake news._

Well there's this also thing known as "satire", you know.

~~~
RightMillennial
Actual satire is one thing, but can a childish insult such as calling someone
a "gay clown" really be classified as satire?

~~~
nothrabannosir
I don't know how else to put this, but: yes. Yes it can.

