No, a joke is a joke. I'm talking about deliberate misleading others about the pandemic situation that can cause actual damage. However, even jokes can be harmful at times, and I heard some people had been punished in the Western countries for coronavirus pranks.
Here's an example.
Both of you would be sort of right.
The immigrants can bring the virus into the country, indeed. But you could be right too because it's not the only possible cause of the epidemic in the country. These are opinions, not fake news I'm talking about.
Things I'd fine or imprison for include:
- posts like "
there are hundreds died from COVID in one hospital, my friend who is a doctor there told me" (but you do not actually have such friend or information) or "
I've seen trucks full of bodies, tried to take a video but my battery ran out, just trust me" (nuff said).
- promoting a fake cure for COVID ("
cut the onion and garlic into little pieces, mix them, eat it and coronavirus will never infect you!" - yes, my Mom recently sent me something like this, thinking it's real), especially if it's something harmful and/or used to make money. Yes, I would punish Lukashenko (the president of Belarus) who said that vodka cures coronavirus.
- posting about your annoying neighbour "
This man is infected with coronavirus and escaped the quarantine, stay away from him!" (but you don't know whether he's been tested positive or not or whether we was quarantined or not).
- knowingly fake reports about food shortage - "
the grocery stores are running low on food, we're going to starve to death, the shelves are empty!" when they're actually not. Here's an example of how such fake news are made (language warning for Russian speakers, she swears a lot there):
The guy puts the food into the cart, takes photos of the empty shelves then puts everything back. And goes away to spread panic on the Internet. The people who believe it could run for the stores, buy all the food (and toilet paper, yes) out in panic and cause actual shortage. Such fearmongerers totally deserve punishment IMO.
- denial of the pandemic - "
the coronavirus is a hoax invented by Putin / Trump / Xi / the Jews / Illuminati to rewrite the Constituition / enslave our nation / establish the new world order!" or "
it's just another flu and kills only old people who were about to die anyway, so there's nothing to worry about!" - and calls for others to ignore the lockdowns and isolation measures. This is debatable whether it's knowignly fake news or not (because such people may be actually believing in the **** they say), but they are a threat in this situation. I'd like these people to be isolated in a loony bin if not in jail until the pandemic ends, at least. Although I'm not sure if there's a legal way to do so.
Anyway, before I posted this, my wish has already been granted - the Russian government has passed the bill about responsibility for fake news. The punishment is 300,000 - 700,000 RUB ($ 3,890 - 9,075) fine or up to 5 years of prison if such news caused damage to someone's health or death.
This needs some correction.
The law you're talking about is about punishment for leaving the quarantine. If someone escapes the quarantine (there were few cases already) he/she was being held in, that person will be fined by 500,000 - 1 million RUB ($ 6,482 - 12,964), depending on the consequences, and if it caused someone else to get infected and die, this will result in 3-7 years of imprisonment (the hardest punishment will be if two or more people died as a result).
Wow. Now everyone who's imprisoned in Russia for whatever reason is a dissident...
Please, read above if you misunderstood it, too.
