Russian Social Network Used to Persecute LGBT People, Government Folds Hands

[Harry-Potter]

While widespread homophobia affects Russian offline and online communities, government does nothing to stop it. VKontakte (InTouch) is the 8th biggest social networking website in the world, accounting for more than 239 million users and 55 million active daily. Today the social network hosts videos of rapes, threats to kill, and the humiliation of LGBT people.

 

 

While the world’s attention is focused on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, hundreds LGBT Russian citizens are being persecuted and attacked – this is a result of plots formed on the Internet by homophobic groups buoyed up by Putin’s anti-gay propaganda legislation.

For example, “Occupy Pedophilia” is one of the leading groups having a prominent presence on VKontakte, with over 90,000 followers, and there are other local factions pulling in more supporters. Recently the extent of the violence faced by the LGBT community was exposed to the world. “Occupy Pedophilia” uses the website to get in touch with gay men, pretending potential love interests, just to lure them into situations where they will be attacked – a process they refer to as “safaris” using “bait”.

The videos showing victims being violently attacked and humiliated are regularly uploaded to the website – they are easily available to view, “liked”, passed around, and shared on VKontakte, seemingly without impediment.

Despite the group claiming they aren’t neo-Nazis, but are just upholding a moral obligation to rid their country of pedophiles (whom they for some reason conflate with homosexuals), the VK community is littered with Nazi insignia.

VKontakte, in response, pledged to delete the abusing content and block and delete communities calling to violence or illegal actions against people. The operators of the social network pointed out that they are the only Russian social network which allows its users to select a same-sex person when specifying their relationship status.

In the meantime, VKontakte isn’t the only social network website on which Occupy Pedophilia is operating. For instance, YouTube returns more than 23,000 search results for the group, and hate propaganda from Russian fascist groups is tweeted very often. In addition, LGTB people are often persecuted under Putin’s new gay propaganda laws.

The Guardian newspaper, which featured an article on the issue, revealed that despite VKontakte pledging to remove the violent content and delete the relevant accounts, it took its operators 5 days to remove only one video, turning a blind eye to the thousands of videos still hosted on the service.

[Tanis]

Are you REALLY surprised?

This is Putin's Russia.

A country that's going BACKWARDS, and will fall just like the USSR did before.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Tanis

[Cyrus]

The same network also hosts TONS of good quality music and video, so I don't really care.

[Tanis]

 

The same network also hosts TONS of good quality music and video, so I don't really care.

 

And Mussolini kept the trains on time.

But, hey, it's not you, so why should you give a shit?

[Cyrus]

But, hey, it's not you, so why should you give a shit?

Exactly.

[tokyo joe]

VKontakte claims it will crack down on its content, so we will have to wait and see.  But I personally wouldn't hold my breath as the government is so anti-LGBT

[Tanis]

 

But, hey, it's not you, so why should you give a shit?

Exactly.

 

Don't breed.

Ever.

Just. Don't.

[Cyrus]

Don't breed.

Ever.

Just. Don't.

I'm sorry, but I already have two kids...

locked in my basement