REVIEW - Russia's VK Social Network Faces 1st Lawsuit For Sharing Personal Data With Police

MOSCOW/ST PETERSBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2018) Russian social network VK (Vkontakte) has been slapped with its first lawsuit, filed by a resident of the city of Ufa, for sharing personal data with law enforcement, the joint press service of St. Petersburg courts told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"The Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg registered the claim filed by Lilia Chanysheva against VKontakte LLC for non-pecuniary damage in the amount of 100,000 rubles [$1,520] for divulging personal information of the user to law enforcement agencies," the press service said.

The court has not yet decided whether it would consider the lawsuit, it added.

The claimant's lawyer, Dmitry Gerasimov, explained to Sputnik that information from the girl's personal VK page had been requested by the Center for Countering Extremism of the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

According to the attorney, the police have not initiated any criminal proceedings against the girl yet.

He continued by saying that the police were informed by the social network of the time and date of when the page was created, personal data used during the registration process, as well as the IP address. The police sent this information to Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, which requested that Chanysheva provide information about members of a group on VK, he said.

The girl refused to do so and faced an administrative case as a result. It was during this case that she learned about the police's request to VK, Gerasimov added.

VK SAYS ABIDES BY LAW WHEN SHARING DATA

A VK spokesperson told Sputnik that the social network had not been notified about the lawsuit yet.

He added that company would need to review the matter itself, he added.

"Once again we draw attention to the fact that we are building interaction with law enforcement agencies exclusively within the framework of the law. At the same time, we consider it necessary to improve the law," the spokesperson said.

In Russia, hundreds of criminal cases "for reposts" have been launched this year alone. The scenarios for such cases are similar: the prosecution finds reported articles and pictures, stored by users on their profiles, that allegedly "incite hatred" and initiates criminal proceedings.

One of the most notable cases was that Barnaul student Maria Motuznaya, who faced up to five years in prison for pictures that were on her VK profile. Following a long trial, the court returned the case to prosecutors for further investigation. Motuznaya has since left Russia.

The situation around social network-related cases has been brought to the attention of the Russian Supreme Court. During its September plenum, the court directed the lower courts' attention to the fact that placing controversial material on a social network could not serve as a basis for charging under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code.

In early October, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill on decriminalizing some of the actions stipulated in the article to the State Duma. The amendments exclude criminal convictions for one-time perpetrators whose actions did not endanger national security. According to the president's initiative, only people who were found guilty of committing a felony under the article twice within one year would face criminal convictions.

Article 282 was introduced to fight extremist propaganda, but it sparked concerns that it would be used against those who "liked" or reposted controversial social media publications. According to data from Russian investigators, about 75 percent of last year's extremist crimes in Russia were related to publications on social media.