A participating snail during a snails race in the town of Tricio, northern Spain, 23 August 2025. Photo: EPA/FERNANDO DIAZ
Russian scientific journal Batrachospermum has been urgently required to censor a book it translated about the sexual life of animals by its publisher, who cited alleged violations of Russia’s law against so-called “LGBT propaganda”, the magazine’s editor Viktor Kovylin revealed on Tuesday.
According to Kovylin, the unnamed publisher objected to the neutral scientific descriptions of same-sex behaviour and reproductive diversity in animals contained in the book, which is due to be published later this year.
The publisher reportedly said that descriptions of homosexual behaviour that do not contain disgust or criticism, such as the book’s descriptions of snails, slugs and planarians (flatworms), three species that are often hermaphroditic, legally constitute the so-called “propaganda of non-traditional relationships”.
Discussion of diverse genitalia is also prohibited, with it only possible to mention penises and vaginas without condemnation, according to Kovylin. Among the naturally occurring sexual organs now deemed to be “propaganda of non-traditional genitalia” are pedipalps (appendages in arachnids used for sperm transfer), aedeaguses (the copulatory organs of many insects) and hectocotyli (a modified arm used by male cephalopods, such as octopuses, to transfer sperm).
Kovylin added that the publisher’s legal analysis of the text was conducted using artificial intelligence. As a result, the editorial team now faces having to challenge the decision or rewrite “half the book”.
Though the title of the book and its publisher have not been disclosed, all previous books by Batrachospermum have been published by the Eksmo-AST publishing group, which has in the past also confirmed using artificial intelligence to censor manuscripts, making it likely that the censorship demand came from one of the group’s publishing houses.
