DUBAI: The Russian justice ministry last week banned social media users in the country from sharing an image of President Vladimir Putin photo edited to look like a clown wearing make-up, media outlets reported Wednesday.
The government has a list of more than 4,000 images, including various memes of the president, which it considers “extremist propaganda.”
The image is number 4,071, which the ministry describes a “man resembling the president” whose makeup “hints at the Russian president’s allegedly nonstandard sexual orientation.”
It’s now illegal in Russia to share an image of Putin as a gay clown, but for now it's still legal here. Share away b4 Trump outlaws it too. pic.twitter.com/bsLwnuQOd0
— A Once Great Nation (@USARedOrchestra) April 5, 2017
This meme surfaced in 2013 as the Russian crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ community began making international headlines.
It is unclear which version of the meme is now banned, as multiples variants have emerged over time.
According to Radio Free Europe on Wednesday, the ministry based its ruling on the 2016 criminal case of Aleksandr Tsvetkov, who was accused of promoting hate speech by posting similar memes on Russian social networking site Vkontakte.
