Police are using a new tactic: Inappropriate Facebook posts can reach your home

However, politicians acknowledge that the law provides penalties for lies and absurdities, which is difficult but also important, and freedom of expression, which conspiracy theorists often hide.

Late last year in the K ,dainiai district, officers approached a man who was very active in spreading conspiracy theories and nonsense to warn him that the information he was spreading about vaccines was incorrect.

“I am officially warning you of unauthorized, dangerous and contrary to the interests of society or its members. I can warn you and warn you that if I don’t know if someone will say again that they are spreading false and not true facts, then they may be subject to an administrative fine or even criminal liability, ”they told him.

“The man simply urged not to comply with the laws of the Republic of Lithuania, other legal acts, urged to oppose measures aimed at controlling the virus, in accordance with the provisions of the Police Law, this person was officially warned about their activities contrary to the law, “said Ramūnas Matonis.

The man himself indicated that the officials had received attention because of a video in which he said that the Lithuanian soldiers intended to vaccinate the public.

In the video, he explains that vaccines are harmful and assures that he will oppose mandatory vaccination. Although there is not and will not be in Lithuania.

Laurynas Kasčiūnas, head of the Committee for National Security and Defense, says that the activity of such antivaxis is already a threat to the security of the country, since it increases the circle of doubts or whether vaccination is necessary.

And if, in fact, you urge people not to follow these rules through social media, to remove the masks that supposedly restrict their freedom, not to observe social distance, to swarm, according to antivaxis, then basically they activate certain mechanisms. Then the police can approach that person and officially warn them, ”says Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the Committee for Defense and National Security.

There is currently no legal responsibility for spreading misinformation. It would be difficult to enshrine it in law, because broadcasters encompass the freedom of expression provided for in the Constitution.

“Of course, after that freedom of expression, it is usually used for disinformation, which in an authoritarian state would mean the disconnection, exclusion and detention of these people, in a democratic state everything is different and you have to understand it. It would be very difficult to define, we don’t have to enter such a world when you can interpret what is misinformation very flexibly, ”says L. Kasčiūnas.

Police say they don’t have specific statistics on how many people have been punished and what specific statements they make, but these cases are not unique.

“There are such police warnings about wrongdoing. There are not many, but there are probably a dozen such warnings every month. You need to assess a specific situation very specifically, what specific actions that person takes, and whether, as I mentioned, their actions. they are incurring liability, then that liability is applicable, ”said R. Matonis.

Army analysts estimate that there may be around 7 percent of so-called antivaxis in the country. – several hundred thousand people. And recently, their activities have become more audible and visible.

“They are convinced that governments, various associations, communities, journalists, the media lie and that only the same people tell the truth and only those people can be trusted,” says Tomas Čeponis, strategic communications analyst.

Antivaxatives not only question scientific and medical knowledge about vaccines, but they also say that we are all poisoned from the sky with chemtravel, and even snow falling from the sky is dangerous.

“There has been a spread of information that long term mask use has a direct effect on our brains and it is not clear which devices, it is not clear what people have been tested for and they show some changing numbers, nobody you probably understand what numbers, you just see those numbers are growing very rapidly, ”says T. Čeponis.

Various public opinion polls suggest that between half and two-thirds of the country’s population may want to be vaccinated, but the number of undecided varies.