The Kremlin is spearheading a new ‘social-media monitoring system’ to hold local officials more accountable

The Kremlin is reportedly spearheading a new social-media monitoring system called “Incident Management” that allows the authorities to follow social networks in real time, watching for complaints from locals and coordinating local officials responses. According to the magazine RBC, the system (developed by the company Medialogiya for 8.5 million rubles, about $135,000) is already being tested in two regions, including in Moscow.

The system monitors five networks (Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), creating an “incident” whenever related disgruntled posts start appearing on multiple networks. Local officials are apparently supposed to respond to these incidents within 24 hours, and the Kremlin reportedly has real-time access to the statistics about all “solved and unsolved” “incidents.”