Cyberbullying as a Deviation of the Right of Citizens to Freedom of Opinion on the Internet
Due to the widespread internetization of public relations, the Internet has become one of the most important platforms for the implementation of civil rights and freedoms, including the freedom of expression. However, some users go beyond legitimate exercise of this right causing harm to others by their actions. Cyberbullying is one of the forms of such actions.The purpose of the article is to draw the line between lawful expression of a negative opinion and cyberbullying while there is no necessary legal regulation in this field in the Russian legislation. To achieve this goal, the authors study the social and legal nature of cyberbullying relying on Russian and foreign experience. The paper highlights two cases of mass cyberbullying that took place in Russia in 2018 and caused a major public outcry.The authors conclude that the line between cyber-bullying and implementation of the freedom of expression is the deliberate focus of the former on causing moral suffering to the opponent and its unilateral nature. In addition, the paper focuses on the need for self-regulation of citizens on the Internet in order to protect public morality, as well as filling the existing legal gap.17