The Russian LGBT Network has reported the schooling administration of the Nevsky district of St. Petersburg (Russia) instructed teachers to gather information about their student’s online activity to ensure they are not engaging with LGBTQ+ content.
The LGBT Network claims to have screenshots of messages from a teacher which indicates they were told to check the personal networking pages of students.If a student’s social media contained ‘LGBTQ+ symbols’ such as a rainbow flag, teachers were reportedly asked to create a file on the child which included their address and physical descriptions.
The surveillance is based on the notion that engaging with LGBTQ+ online content would be breaching Russia’s ‘gay propaganda law’.