VK to Enhance User Privacy Amid Criminal Cases

The number of people being prosecuted for sharing humorous meme images that allegedly offend someone’s feelings has noticeably increased recently. New criminal cases are being initiated, sparking public outcry and justified indignation. In response, the social network VKontakte (VK) has decided to make its platform more private for regular users.

This was announced by VK’s Managing Director, Andrey Rogozov, who considers this a very important step and the most significant reform in the social network’s history.

“Statistics show that the situation with criminal cases for online publications is getting worse. VK users are increasingly becoming subjects of such cases. This deeply concerns us,” Rogozov said.

The managing director also noted that law enforcement agencies tend to equate ordinary joke images with serious criminal offenses, and do not distinguish between an original post and a repost.

Upcoming Privacy Measures

As a result, the social network will implement the following measures:

• The album with saved images will be set to private by default.
• The public list of people who have reposted any publication will be removed.
• Fully private profiles will be introduced, accessible only to friends.

It is noted that VK will continue to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, as it is required to comply with the laws of the Russian Federation. However, platform representatives emphasize that they are against unjustified persecution in the digital space.