In not-soviet-anymore Russia… this just happened.
Anyway, Vladimir Putin is not known for his sense of humor, so a lot of the good people from the internet make sure to remedy the problem by making funny memes out of him. Everyone has a good chuckle before going back to their daily lives. However, Putin, ever the crusader against fun, has got wind of this blossoming of Vlad-lolz and decided to drop the proverbial banhammer on them.
Russia’s media authority and super easily provoked internet censor Roskomnadzor have announced a snap decision to bring an end to images that might slander or degrade the image of a public figure. Memes apparently are a threat to the image of those they depict.
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This means that not only are Putin memes being given the gagging order, but also theoretically any that depict people in the public eye. Of course, one can imagine that Putin memes are the main cause of the new ban.
“These ways of using [celebrities’ images] violate the laws governing personal data and harm the honor, dignity and business of public figures,” says Roskomnadzor.
Hopefully the purveyors of even the dankest Putin memes won’t be getting punished by the Russian government, but the images themselves, or sites that use them, may still yet be blocked by the censorship service. If this means that any site found to distribute such images, Russians could expect to see them disappear if the authorities find evidence of non state approved memeing.
It’s the next in a series of updates to Russian internet policy, for example another edict which requires owners of any private blog to be registered with the censorship agency if it gets over 3000 daily readers. If you’re popular online apparently you are no longer entitled to your privacy.
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Memes are now perilously unsafe in the Russian internet. A law allows Roskomnadzor to censor sites without any sort of warning, and coupled with accusations of flagrant memeing targeting an individual, this could very well mean anyone with an axe to grind could theoretically posts memes on a site to attract the authorities.
For more top quality and rare Putin memes, one can visit Know Your Meme’s extensive archive of non Russian Federation approved images at the link below. Additionally, Google will display roughly 777,000 results for the search query ‘Putin memes’. Good luck, and don’t get caught by state.
Via: Washington Post
More Putin memes @ Know Your Meme