Russian Education Ministry to develop instructions for teachers on using social media following firing threats

Andrey Yemelyanov, the press secretary to Russia’s Minister of Education, announced that the ministry intends to develop a set of recommendations on Internet behavior for the country’s teachers, Interfax reported. Yemelyanov said the instructions would be ready for the start of the coming academic year and that they would be sent to all of Russia’s regions. He added that similar practices are widespread internationally.

The announcement follows multiple incidents in recent years in which Russian schoolteachers were threatened with firing after they faced backlash for social media posts. One teacher in Omsk appeared in an online photograph wearing a swimsuit, and another teacher from Barnaul was photographed wearing an evening dress. A third teacher from Murmansk faced threats of losing her job after she criticized Yunarmia, a patriotic youth movement, on social media. All three teachers were women.