The socio-legal conditionality of criminal liability for the public dissemination of knowingly false socially significant information

Criminalization in Russia of acts of public dissemination of knowingly false socially significant information, including about circumstances that pose a threat to the life and safety of citizens, is caused not only by the “infodemia” declared by the World Health Organization, but also by other factors considered in this article. The relevance of the theoretical understanding of the socio-legal conditionality of criminal law norms (Articles 207.1 and 207.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is due to the determination of the validity and expediency of their adoption. In this regard, the article examines the degree and nature of the public danger of the acts in question; the factors of their criminalization; the socially significant consequences of committing crimes; the validity of placing criminal law norms in the chapter, the object of which is public safety; the conflict of art. 207.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with the norms on freedom of speech. Dialectical, systemic, comparative legal methods were used in the work. Based on the analysis of the reasons for the criminalization of the acts in question, scientific works of famous Russian and foreign experts in the field of countering the dissemination of knowingly false information, the author made conclusions about the social and legal conditionality of the adoption of Articles 207.1 and 207.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.