A screencap from the video. (Photo: Red Hot Russia)

It starts with a young blonde boy, who looks to be in his early teens, his face covered in dirt and bruises, bent over on his knees kissing the pink sandals of a teen girl. The video, which was filmed in Novomoskovsk--a city in western Russia--and depicts three teens violently bullying and abusing one of their peers, has gone viral on the Russian Internet.

At first, the video is difficult to parse without understanding Russian. Is this a game? you might wonder for the first few seconds. But as the video plays on, it becomes evident you're watching an assault. A few more seconds into the video, another teen in the group kicks the young blonde boy in the stomach. The girl's brother, in a blue Nike shirt, joins in and kicks him in the belly, in the face. Soon, you might begin to feel sick.

Betabeat has not been able to verify the source of the video independently. But according to Russian news sources, the video was initially uploaded to YouTube before being removed by administrators. It was then copied to a Latvian server, where it's being hosted on the site RuCrash.com. Russian web sleuths wasted no time unearthing the identities of the students in the film. The girl is said to be Tataiana Muravyova, a 13-year-old student who was dating the bullied boy in the video until he decided to dump her for another girl. Ms. Muravyova allegedly sought her revenge by getting her brother and a few of his friends to beat up the boy, all while the camera rolled.

Ms. Muravyova's VK profile page. (Photo: VK.com)

LifeNews reports that police in the Tula region where the video was allegedly filmed are investigating the incident. Meanwhile, though the video only hit news sites a handful of hours ago, Ms. Muravyova's profile on the Russian social network VK has already begun filling up with hateful comments by users who have seen the video. "You're a stupid whore," wrote one user in Russian, translated to English via Chrome. "Tanya's mother, why do not you think about abortion?" asked another, also in Russian, translated to English.

The video, bleak and sickening, is yet another sad example of teenage bullying gone viral. Back in June, when a video of a bus monitor being bullied by teens in Greece, New York went viral, the victim--Karen Klein--received hundreds of thousands of dollars from an Indiegogo campaign started in her name. Ms. Klein decided to use the funds to start an anti-bullying foundation.

That incident, however sad it was in the beginning, ultimately ended happily. But the story of the viral Russian bullying video is a little more complicated. For one, the backlash against Ms. Muravyova seems to be far more violent and aggressive than that against the teenage bullies in Greece, NY ever was. In this case, bullying has begotten more bullying--even if Ms. Muravyova's actions seemingly make her a complicit in the attack.

So far, in this situation, there's no redeeming crowdfunding outlet, no spot on the Today show. There's just the young blonde boy with the dirt and the bruises, and the 13-year-old girl with a checkered past being sought by police.

(Image: flickr.com/jbcurio)

New York legislators involved with the proposed Internet Protection Act are getting a lot of calls today, and they're not quite sure why. The bill was introduced weeks ago to a quiet reception but seems to have become controversial overnight.

"Assemblyman Jim Conte is just a co-sponsor on the bill," an exasperated aide answered when Betabeat called for a quote about the proposed law, which would require online publishers to remove anonymous comments upon request. "I don't know why today's the day, but today's the day that everyone is calling on this," Republican Tom O'Mara, who introduced the bill in the senate, told Betabeat. "Something was posted somewhere, I guess."

It must have been that Wired story; or maybe it was the pickup on Slashdot. But the proposed legislation, "in relation to protecting a person's right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting," has provoked chagrin, to say the least, in the blogosphere.

Critics say the bill constitutes censorship and an undue burden on publishers' backs. Proponents say it will combat against cyberbullying like the abuse that allegedly led to Long Island's Alexis Pilkington's suicide.

The bill originated with Assemblyman Dean Murray, who has some experience with anonymous online commenters himself. Faceless detractors used the web in 2010 to spread rumors that Assemb. Murray was guilty of domestic violence against his ex-wife and son.

"The thing that disturbed me the most about it was, once everything was proven false, there was no way to get the comments down," Assemb. Murray said. "The important thing here is to give the victims a voice and an opportunity to protect themselves."

Assemb. Murray.

Under the bill, publishers would be required to dedicate a phone number or email address to receiving complaints about comments. If someone who is directly harmed by the comment challenges a comment, the publisher must take action. The bill as it's written now would require publishers to either collect, verify and publish contact information for the commenter in question—or else remove the comment.

It's similar to the policy many newspapers have for letters to the editor, he said. The legislation would also protect small businesses from anonymous reviews, he said.

"I'm hoping that we can have the governor join on board. He announced this week that he wants to crack down on cyberbullying," Assemb. Murray said. "This does not infringe on anyone's first amendment rights."

Over in the state senate, his  counterpart wasn't so sure. Sen. O'Mara said the initial reaction to the bill was positive and seemed taken aback to discover today that some constituents consider the proposal a violation of free speech.

"Obviously this presses upon the basic foundation of our Constitution and whether this will comport with that or not is something that we're going to be evaluating," he said. "Obviously we're not going to look to move forward with legislation that's in violation of the first amendment."

Had Sen. O'Mara heard of any instances of cyberbullying in his district? "Just anecdotally, I guess," he said. "I don't have any specific things that come off the top of my head now, just complaints about comments that are posted that are baseless, that are false, and are troublesome to say the least."