Foreign Trolls Will Delight in This and Double Their Insults: Samvel Martirosyan

Those who expect that this law will reduce insults online and that butterflies will flourish in the fields, let me say right away: nothing will change. This was stated by information security expert Samvel Martirosyan on his Facebook page, commenting on the bill passed today by the parliament, which proposes to make swearing punishable by law.

He specifically noted, “For those who are waiting for this law to reduce swearing online, and for butterflies to flourish in the fields, let me say it right away: nothing will change. Because half of the Armenian internet consists of people who are not in Armenia. And this law will not affect them. And those foreign trolls will delight in this and double their insults.

Besides, it’s easy to open a fake account and humorously warm the hearts of around 20 million people. One can also continue swearing openly. Let’s see how the police and courts will manage to catch and prosecute thousands of local trolls. Not to mention that it can always be claimed that it wasn’t me, my Facebook was hacked. Well, now let's conduct an expert examination on that.

When a law does not work properly, it deepens a legal nihilism. But now the worst part: swearing is a very difficult phenomenon to measure. It's hard to say when it crosses the line from an insult to a severe insult, and so on. Here, the court and the prosecutor's office get a tool to fulfill political orders. In fact, a judge can easily throw someone in jail for a few comments by interpreting them in whatever way he prefers.

And of course, it’s very easy to swear online in such a way that it’s hard to characterize it as swearing, while the bureaucrats will still endure the moral torment they receive. As they say, an intellectual won't say 'I'm in you,' he will say 'I’m into your style.'

I continue to be concerned about why the current authorities are adopting and continuing to adopt so many restrictive laws.