Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works.
In the News
Last month, Russian photographer Alexandra Kuzyk became one of many people targeted in Russia’s intensifying campaign against LGBTQ+ expression when she was prosecuted for writing gay fanfiction. Prosecutors sought a four-year prison sentence, but Kuzyk was instead sentenced to 18 months of compulsory labor, with 10% of her wages withheld by the state. While Kuzyk was formally convicted under Russia’s law against producing and distributing pornography, her case is part of the broader crackdown on LGBTQ+ content in Russia. LGBTQ Nation reports that:
In 2026 alone, Russia has charged streamers for illegally distributing the gay hockey drama Heated Rivalry, raided an LGBTQ+ book imprint, fined a man for posting a photo of a drag queen, banned a scientist from writing about same-sex animal behavior, and designated multiple LGBTQ+ rights groups as “extremist organizations.”
As of June 2025, Human Rights Watch had identified 101 convictions stemming from Russia’s 2023 designation of the “International Public LGBT Movement” as an “extremist” organization. Over the following year, Human Rights Watch documented a significant escalation in enforcement, including bans on LGBTQ+ support organizations.
OTW Legal recently highlighted Russia’s ban on LGBTQ+ content, as well as another human rights abuse: the arrests of dozens of danmei writers in China. As an organization, the OTW strongly condemns these abuses and stands firmly in support of those affected. We will continue to monitor the situation.
The OTW received a request from Matteo Corciolani and Alessandro Biraglia, marketing professors at the University of Pisa and University of Leeds, respectively. Corciolani and Biraglia are conducting research on fandoms from a consumer behavior perspective. They are particularly interested in the concept of authenticity within fandom communities and in understanding how readers assess alternative versions of popular stories.
To take part in this research, fans can answer a survey about how they evaluate fanfiction, particularly in terms of its coherence with the original source material and their interest in reading it. The survey takes approximately 10–12 minutes to complete and consists of a series of short fanfiction scenarios followed by rating questions. Participants must be 18 years of age or older. For more information, please visit the survey link above.
This research has received ethics approval from the University of Pisa Bioethics Committee. Questions about this study can be directed to Matteo Corciolani and Alessandro Biraglia.
Archive of Our Own (AO3) and the OTW do not endorse this project; we are signal-boosting this link for informational purposes only.
OTW Tips
If you’re a fanwork creator who welcomes recursive fanworks (fic of fic), you can let others know by adding a blanket permission statement to your AO3 profile. Recursive fanworks are especially common in the podfic community, but they are also created by fanartists, translators, writers, and more.
To help fan creators find you, consider submitting your name to the FPS List, which maintains a database of authors with blanket permission. To easily find works with blanket permission, you can install the Blanket Permission Highlighter—a browser extension for AO3 created by BrickGrass.
If you think you might want to add a blanket permission statement to your profile but aren’t sure where to start, the Fanworks Permission Statement Builder by flamingwell is a great resource. For more information about the FPS List and their database, check out their FAQ page!
We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.
Warning for people doing the survey linked aboue:
1. It has pale grey text on a white background – quite difficult to read.
2. It’s badly laid out – you have to keep scrolling left and right because you can’t read the questions and see the right-most column at the same time.
3. You have to define yourself as EITHER a writer OR a reader.
4. They keep using the terms “authntic” and “original” without ever defining what they mean by those terms in the context of fanfic.
The OTW does such important work preserving fanworks and archive history. Really appreciate seeing these regular updates on AO3 and other projects. Keep up the great work documenting the community! Looking forward to more OTW Signal issues.