{"id":153942,"date":"2025-09-05T11:42:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"reprisals-target-online-activities-as-minsk-expands-law-enforcers-powers","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals target online activities as Minsk expands law enforcers\u2019 powers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>September 5, <em>Pozirk<\/em>. <\/strong>New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 3 and 4 as the government authorized law enforcement agencies, alongside the information ministry, to restrict access to online content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A document published on the National Legal Internet Portal yesterday granted these powers to the interior ministry, the Committee for State Security (KGB), the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move is part of a larger campaign to tighten control of online content in the past five years, following the 2020 political crisis. For instance, the information ministry recently announced extremist content designations for more than 20 social media accounts, including those representing Belarusian communities in Canada, Finland, Sweden, Paris and San Francisco, as well as <em>Razam.de <\/em>and pages by <em>Katolik.life<\/em> project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of September 5, human rights defenders identified at least 1,185 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0800-780x500-1-354x236.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0800-780x500-1-354x236.jpg 354w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0800-780x500-1-734x490.jpg 734w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0800-780x500-1-178x118.jpg 178w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0800-780x500-1.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> \u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n\n                            <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> \u041e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">\u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430, \u041e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">At least 1,950 NGOs dissolved since August 2020 \u2013 Lawtrend<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">September 4, Pozirk. At least 1,950 NGOs, including associations, trade unions and foundations, were dissolved between the 2020 presidential election and the end of August 2025, Lawtrend said in a report. The figure stood at 1,891 in late December 2024. &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/153783\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read the article<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>September 5, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 3 and 4 as the government authorized law enforcement agencies, alongside the information ministry, to restrict access to online content. A document published on the National Legal Internet Portal yesterday granted these powers to the interior ministry, the Committee for State [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63993,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-153942","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reprisals target online activities as Minsk expands law enforcers\u2019 powers | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 5, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 3 and 4 as the government authorized law\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reprisals target online activities as Minsk expands law enforcers\u2019 powers | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 5, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 3 and 4 as the government authorized law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-10T12:05:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/\"},\"headline\":\"Reprisals target online activities as Minsk expands law enforcers\u2019 powers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-05T08:42:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-10T12:05:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/\"},\"wordCount\":159,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/\",\"name\":\"Reprisals target online activities as Minsk expands law enforcers\u2019 powers | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pozirk_color_blank_1128x752.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-05T08:42:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-10T12:05:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"September 5, Pozirk. 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New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 3 and 4 as the government authorized law","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/153942\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reprisals target online activities as Minsk expands law enforcers\u2019 powers | Pozirk","og_description":"September 5, Pozirk. 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