The Prosecutor General of Russia, Igor Krasnov, announced [in Russian] that Russia will take additional steps to limit the spread of misinformation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The placement of unreliable, socially significant information disseminated under the guise of reliable information, has been revealed, which pose a threat to […] public safety,” Krasnov’s office said in a statement.

In March, the Russian Duma approved a bill to counteract the spread of fake news and implemented a fine for those convicted of disseminating misinformation online.

Although it has passed several laws to combat online misinformation, Russia has been accused of state-sponsored spreading of fake news. The Law Library of the Library of Congress has identified Russia as one of the principal culprits of spreading ‘fake news’ during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, noting that “media outlets such as Russia Today and the Sputnik Information Agency were implicated for producing and disseminating fake news through various social media and other channels.”

No matter the source, confronting fake news and misinformation related to COVID-19 is a chief priority of the world’s policymakers.

For more on COVID-19, see our special coverage.