School kids’ social media profiles are being screened for ‘LGBT+ propaganda’ in Russia

Teachers in Saint Petersburg, Russia, have been instructed by education officials to “monitor” their students’ social media profiles for so-called “LGBT+ symbols”, activists on the ground said. This spring during the next academic term, teachers of grades five to 11 (ages 10 to 17) will comb the online profiles of thousands of 10 to 17-year-olds, according to emails by Nevsky District administrators seen by the LGBT Network, the country’s only inter-regional queer rights organisation.

“Reposting the rainbow flag” was one such example of an “LGBT+ symbol”, with teachers being ordered by education department officials to create “dossiers” of what each symbol is and means.

Addresses, among other personal details, of students who use or circulate such symbols, they said, will be sent to the ministry of internal affairs, the government department which commands public administration.

Activists slam surveilling students’ social media for ‘illegal’ LGBT+ symbols. This is no isolated case, LGBT Network members stressed. Indeed, last year, university officials nearly expelled a student after they scoured his social media and found he subscribed to an LGBT+ group.

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