MOSCOW — Iron-fisted authorities in Belarus have responded to a burst of creative modes of protest by young protesters with a rather surreal innovation of their own: a law that prohibits people from standing together and doing nothing.

A draft law published Friday prohibits the “joint mass presence of citizens in a public place that has been chosen beforehand, including an outdoor space, and at a scheduled time for the purpose of a form of action or inaction that has been planned beforehand and is a form of public expression of the public or political sentiments or protest.”

Anyone proven to be taking part in such a gathering would be subject to up to 15 days of administrative arrest, the draft says.

Recent protests, galvanized by an economic crisis and organized through social networks by Belarussian dissidents based outside the country, have encouraged ingenious methods of expression. People have simultaneously and publicly clapped or strolled, or had their cellphone alarms go off together.