Russian Nudists Teens Facing the Troll Army

Numerous “patriotic Russian Wikipedias” have surfaced to assist Russia’s troll army, offering thousands of pasteable images featuring European leaders engaging in humiliating photoshopped incidents accompanied by demeaning captions that emphasize their weakness and stupidity. Other websites often incorporate racist or homophobic overtones; one site even depicted Vladimir Putin as either a monkey, banana or toilet bowl in mocking cartoons!

The boys have assembled an elite team of editors, assistants and translators to meet the global demands of their worldwide audience on social media, mobile gaming applications and merchandise such as T-shirts and dolls. Haven Global (a licensing agency) and Playmates Toys have signed representation contracts with them to develop new content and consumer products for them to sell to consumers worldwide.

While they have achieved much, the boys still face obstacles and threats. Their mother filed a formal complaint with Discord, the platform that hosts their channel, regarding Mr. Kitty’s use of direct message exchanges; Discord then began investigating this claim.

Many young people in Ukraine are drawn to the provocative, sexuality of boys’ videos; however, some find their nudity deeply upsetting. Autumn M. Lerner of University of Washington recalls discussing sexuality with her classmates at a Moscow nightclub several years ago and being astounded to discover that any such discussion was taboo for nonreligious Russians; indeed it could even be considered uncultured – an attitude still common among older Russians nostalgic for youthful rebellion in Soviet Russia.