, 2014
The protests in Ukraine demonstrate how all governments respond. Even England went after kids trying to organize on Twitter. The governments monitor everything now to head-off protests. A 12-year old in England found that out the hard way. The US arrested a man for using Twitter to help protesters evade police.
In Ukraine, after weeks of student protests over the government corruption and its failure to sign a European integration and association treaty, the police violently cracked down on protesters, and politicians passed a series of new laws in the middle of the night. Among them:
- Criminal extremist activity is now redefined, broadly and loosely, that effectively criminalized protests, press reports, or social media that is anti-government.
- Insulting a policeman or judge is now a criminal offense. This includes behavior that “patently offends” or “shows insolent disrespect”.
- Blocking of administrative buildings is now criminalized with a 5-year prison sentence.
- Anyone who organizes an assembly in violation of ‘established procedures’ can be arrested.
- The government has streamlined its ability to force Internet Service Providers to block certain websites it deems harmful in its sole discretion.
- New amendments to the criminal code allow pre-trial and trial proceedings to be conducted, even if the defendant is not physically present to defend himself.
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