OREANDA-NEWS. As representatives of Roskomnadzor reported on December 22 in an interview with RIA Novosti, more than half of the fake news in the past year was related to the topic of the coronavirus pandemic. More precisely, about 60 percent of such news were registered.

The vast majority of fake news was posted on YouTube, which has become the leader in spreading fake news among foreign Internet platforms.

Fake news spread even though in the spring Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws, one of which provides for a fine of up to five million rubles for fakes about epidemics, and the other - the introduction of fines for violators of security measures amid a pandemic.

Due to the dissemination of inaccurate information this year, the authorities of Russia alone have already punished about a hundred Internet resources. Since the beginning of 2020, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has received requests for fake information disseminated on more than 1,670 websites. To more than 570 of them, access was limited, about 1,100 Internet resources deleted such information at the request of Roskomnadzor, according to representatives of the department.

It is reported that the police have opened 37 criminal cases in Russia since the beginning of the year for disseminating fake information amid the coronavirus pandemic.