‘First ever law against fairytale characters’: Russian Senator trolls US colleagues' anti-troll act

US lawmakers have disrespected voters by passing the DETER act, which treats Americans as puppets in the hands of internet trolls and as not mature citizens who can choose the fate of their country, a top Russian senator has said.

The DETER (Defending Elections against Trolls from Enemy Regimes) Act was adopted in the US Senate on Monday by unanimous vote, a very rare occurrence these days. The legislation adds “improper interference in a US election” to the existing list of immigration law violations, banning all who are deemed guilty from obtaining a US visa or threatening deportation from the country, among other things.

“This is probably the first act in history aimed at protecting against fairytale characters – not only because of the original meaning of the word ‘troll,’ but also because the role of foreign internet interference in the American electoral process has been blown out of proportion in Washington,” Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, wrote on his Facebook page.

It’s been three years since the Democrats lost the US presidential election, but they’re still unwilling to give up on the foreign meddling conspiracy, he said. In fact, they’re trying to justify it “at any cost” after the Mueller Report found no proof to claims of collusion between Donald Trump and Russia in 2016.

The DETER Act has become yet another manifestation of “total disrespect towards the American voters by the Congress, as they are portrayed as puppets in the hands of some virtual characters [trolls], but not mature citizens with their own convictions,” Kosachev lamented.

However, Washington could reap a double dividend from the new legislation, he warned. It would allow US authorities to brag about “victories in supposedly raging virtual wars,” while also targeting dissident voices. The act makes sure that “any foreign blogger, who wrote something wrong about the US, could be sentenced to virtually any prison term,” the Russian senator explained.

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