Chechen authorities involve state servants for harassing their opponents in social networks

Employees of budgetary institutions in Chechnya have reported that their bosses are forcing them to register on the Instagram and leave critical comments under negative posts about authorities.

According to budget-funded employees, they are forced to write negative comments to the posts of the "1Adat" Telegram channel and blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov. The authors of this instruction claim that "comments' quality is checked."

Lema Aliev was a technical school teacher. According to his story, he tried to follow the instruction received from above, but he could not write what he did not believe in; and he left the technical school.

Malika, a college teacher, has confirmed her colleague's words. According to her story, two objects were defined that "most of all made the authorities nervous," namely, the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, and the "1Adat" Telegram channel.

"The bosses of our educational establishment have obliged all their subordinates to become Instagram users and react to each of the posts of the above targets in social networks, expressing 'their civil position.' We must stamp with anger those who deviate from national customs. Now, many of us are at a loss – if you don't start an Instagram page and fail to comment, as our bosses demand, then you are at a risk of being fired. And to write what is contrary to your essence is to betray yourself. This is the dilemma I face," Ms Malika has noted.