Affiliated media: “To Be Or”, Media project

Incident date: January 12, 2026

Attack type:

• Selective application of repressive laws

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Hrodna

Additional information:

The Leninsky District Court of Hrodna has recognised the internet resources of the information project “To Be or” as extremist information materials. These include the YouTube channel “To Be Or” (identifier: youtube.com/c/tobeor), a group of Telegram channels affiliated with the resource, and other project pages on social networks (13 internet resources in total). The “To Be Or” YouTube channel has more than one million subscribers. The videos on the channel consist of reflections on political topics; the presenter criticises Putin’s militaristic policy and its support by Lukashenko. On the basis of the court’s decision, the Ministry of Information of Belarus has added these internet resources to the Republican List of Extremist Materials. Under Belarusian law, the distribution and storage of materials recognised as extremist entails administrative liability for both publishers and users.