Oljobai Shakir is a popular blogger and political activist in Kyrgyzstan. But his popularity has come at a cost. Since the country’s contested election in October, Shakir, an LGBTQ activist, has started receiving threatening comments, including those directly against him. Oljobai is not alone in receiving politically-motivated threats. Civic activist Ulan Usoiun reports that he sometimes receives up to 40 or 50 threats a day. Unidentified people have also attempted to assault Usoiun in person several times.
In the aftermath of Kyrgyzstan’s October election, social media posts and videos of public events featuring politicians and activists, who criticise Sadyr Japarov - who became interim prime minister and president in the post-election crisis - for his constitutional reform and other initiatives, immediately gather hundreds of comments. Japarov is currently running for president in elections set for 10 January.
As we have previously reported, the combination of support for Japarov in Kyrgyz-language social media and the merciless trolling of his opponents online was crucial to the politician’s meteoric rise to power in the chaotic post-election environment, a pattern that has only escalated in the weeks since.
