The police are already taking control of the internet: a request sent to the historian has sparked ugly associations

How Delphi said Alvydas Nikžentaitis, director of the Institute of History, it should be clear and understandable to the public which speeches on the Internet are beyond borders.

“First of all, the limits must be very clear: what is intolerable, what is punishable, what is perhaps observable. Now, when the basic duties have not been done, there is in my mind a certain zeal, I would say communist, to attack cyberspace ”Said the historian.

According to A. Nikžentaitis, the institute under his leadership received a request from the police on Monday, asking to respond if a person who wrote a text message on Facebook in 1941. The Soviet Union was not attacked by Germany, but by the European Union “Hitler” did not break the law – that is, that phrase is not a denial of Soviet crimes.

“As soon as he receives such a request, (…) his first thought is whether we have such absolute online illiteracy that we should apply to the Institute of History for such nonsense”, A. Nikžentaitis did not hide his surprises.

According to him, it is obvious that the person who posted that phrase added nonsense to Facebook, but A. Nikžentaitis also pointed out that the request sent by the officials to the institute with all the attachments was 20 pages long.

“I have a question: how much does it cost.” Another thing is to cry everywhere for the felled trees, but if the police think it works, then we will live in a state where there are no trees left, because everyone was used to doing such stupid police inquiries , to print letters, “said the director of the Institute of History.

According to A. Nikžentaitis, police officers must also receive intellectual training, so that they can evaluate the content of messages and decide where the object to be investigated is and where it is not.

“People are in a bad mood, they neglect something.” I think that if such things continue to develop, Delphi will probably be one of those invaluable goldmines for our police, especially the comment section, and the state will need to create an institute of separate story to respond to such police investigations, “he added, he said.

President of the Human Rights Committee on the debate on virtual patrols: I do not understand bullying

As explained by Ramūnas Matonis, Head of the Lithuanian Police Communications Division, in Žinių radiju, currently three officers are selected who will begin to perform the functions of a virtual police patrol within a month.

According to him, officials will look for signs of fraud online, take obvious cases of hate speech. You can read about it here.

The chairman of the Seimas Human Rights Committee, Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius Delfi, stated that he was surprised by the dissatisfaction with the virtual police patrol.

“I look at the debate and, in fact, I don’t understand that intimidation. Now personally I am faced with that avalanche of hatred, certainly there are a number of comments that go beyond the scope of the CC. It’s nice to have a team of helpers to help me read and filter those comments, and we have the ability to contact law enforcement. Those cyber patrols would only help police to identify for themselves certain comments that could potentially incite physical violence or hatred against certain groups. That would be of great help ”, explained the MP.

According to TV Raskevičius, the Seimas is not yet going to change the laws that establish responsibility for various crimes in the electronic space.

“The only initiative that will be discussed in the Seimas in the spring session is the transfer of part of the criminal responsibility for hate speech to the Code of Administrative Offenses. Hate speech is now very clearly defined in our system: it is contempt, intimidation, incitement to violence against people due to their belonging to a social group, be it nationality, race, sexual orientation.

The composition of this crime is contained in article 170 of the Penal Code (CC). That composition does not add up or change in any way. The only thing we are proposing is to make administrative, not criminal, responsibility part of the content of the CC article, which defines harassment and contempt, since criminal responsibility should be used only as a last resort, “said the Rights Committee. Humans. President’s rights.

He also drew attention to rumors of punishment for spreading misinformation. According to the MP, people should not be punished for such speeches.

“It just came to our knowledge then. Freedom of expression, freedom of expression is one of the fundamental principles of democratic value. I have the deep conviction that the truth is born in that public debate, that we have to protect and appreciate that public debate. as much as possible, just to limit it to certain milestones that we cannot cross. How can one be punished for the content of the information if it is just a discussion of the facts? “said TV Raskevičius.

Therefore, according to the politician, the discussion on the punishment of disinformation could only occur in the case of systematic cases that threaten the security of the State.

“When talking about such a sensitive issue, it should not be just a few systematic cases, when it is done in a systematic and coordinated way, there are some financial resources and resources are allocated to achieve some specific goals. Suppose you destabilize a democratic order or cause unrest in society. Then, that field of human rights passes to the field of national security and defense, “said the president of the committee.

He also echoed the opinion of A. Nikžentaitis that it would be useful to discuss this with police officers on the issue of freedom of human expression.

“Both the Home Office and the Police College are satisfied with the way they train patrols for hate crimes. I agree that we should talk to them about the content itself, we need a conversation here. We have heard a case in which a commentator who called the policemen cucumbers has been sanctioned: there is a big difference when people are called to violence because of the color of their skin, and where they call something ridiculous, ridiculous. So that language is definitely not it should be censored, ”emphasized TV Raskevičius.

Prayer: This ruling majority is for freedom of expression

For his part, Matas Maldeikis, a member of the Lithuanian Christian National-Democratic Union (TS-LKD) faction, said that there are still no initiatives in the Seimas on additional instruments to control the spread of disinformation.

“It just came to our knowledge then. We will see a government initiative in that area, the Interior Minister has hinted. We will wait, we will see initiatives and then we will react in one way or another”, Delphi Mr Maldeikis said.

According to him, it is necessary to be able to distinguish when a person who has written an online comment is simply expressing an opinion and when it is already a malicious act.

“When it comes to an opinion, a person has one point of view or another, lives in the world of narratives, has the right to have points of view and cannot be punished for it. It is not talked about,” said the member of the Seimas.

However, he did not hide the fact that he sees the online space as a certain “gray area”, therefore, according to M. Maldeikis, this space must be supervised and the laws in it must be applied in the same way as in the normal life. .

When asked if people had a well-founded fear that censorship would take place, Maldeikis assured him that this would not be the case.

“It just came to our attention then. There is no political will or political will for this, and it certainly will not be done. This majority is in favor of freedom of expression in all its manifestations and the broadest possible discussion on various issues. Personally, I am convinced that the majority and the Government would fight in any way against any restriction on freedom of expression on the Internet, there is a clear political position with which we have come and for which we will really fight ”, said the deputy of emphasized the Seimas.

“I think they are trinkets created by individual politicians looking to position themselves in some way, which will not really materialize and that is a real lie,” Maldeikis added.