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Russia Tracks 12.5 Million Social Media Accounts Daily, Nearly Half Over War Criticism
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The Russian federal youth agency Rosmolodezh tracks 12.5 million social media accounts every day, with 6 million of those profiles linked to criticism of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Russian military.
Denis Ashirov, deputy head of the agency, shared these details during a meeting of the Russian State Duma expert council for family protection, according to The Insider on October 27.
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Data analysis indicates that these profiles account for 48% of all monitored accounts. The agency classifies such criticism as destructive and illegal information.
The agency also tracks 1.1 million profiles connected to political violence and criticism of the government, 1.5 million linked to drugs, and 906,000 associated with the promotion and rehabilitation of Nazism.
Additional categories under state monitoring include attacks on educational institutions, suicidal behavior, and criminal subcultures. Social media monitoring for Rosmolodezh is carried out by the Center for Research and Network Monitoring of the Youth Environment, an organization established by order of Vladimir Putin, according to The Insider.
The center helps identify individuals in schools and universities who are considered socially dangerous by the state. Grigory Gurov, head of Rosmolodezh, stated that work done by the center in 2024 led to about 500 criminal cases and several hundred administrative cases.
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Thousands of other individuals faced preventive measures for spreading prohibited information. Court records from 2025 and the first half of 2026 show at least 48 judicial decisions where information from the center was used to prosecute citizens.
In the Novosibirsk region, criticism of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine became the most frequent category of destructive content identified by the center in 2025, followed by anarchism ideas and drug promotion.
In May 2026, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved a youth social prevention plan created by Rosmolodezh. The document details online tracking of teenagers to identify individuals suspected of planning illegal acts. The plan also includes setting up student cyber units to search for destructive content across social networks, messaging platforms, and online forums.
Russian authorities have increasingly focused on identifying so-called “destructive content,” monitoring political sentiment among young people, and embedding patriotic education into classrooms and extracurricular activities.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has rolled out patriotic education programs, mandatory ideological lessons, and reporting mechanisms encouraging students and teachers to flag criticism of the war or government policies.
Officials have framed the push as a preventive measure against extremism and foreign influence, while rights advocates warn it deepens surveillance and pressure against dissent.
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