This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A court in Moscow has fined Meta Platforms and the TikTok social media application for failing to delete content the government deems illegal as Russia continues to ramp up pressure on social-media networks.
The Magistrate Court of the Taganka district ruled on April 26 that Meta must pay 4 million rubles ($52,800) for failing to take down from its Facebook and Instagram networks materials “propagating the LGBT community,” and “insulting Russia’s national flag and coat of arms.”
In a separate hearing, the court in the Russian capital ruled that TikTok must pay 2 million rubles ($26,400) as a fine for failing to remove content that the court claimed was “propagating homosexual relations.”
The court’s decisions were made at the request of media regulator Roskomnadzor, which has tightened its crackdown on media and free speech across the country since Russia launched its war in Ukraine on February 24.
Earlier in the day, a court in the town of Lukhovitsy near Moscow ordered Meta Platforms to restrict access within Russia to several posts on Instagram and Facebook containing references to files from OVD-Info, which monitors political repression in Russia, as well as a number of other websites.
Meta Platforms was deemed an “extremist organization” by a Russian court last month, effectively outlawing Facebook and Instagram.
Prosecutors said at the time that Meta “deliberately allowed hate speech against Russians, which created an alternative reality in which any pro-Russian position was suppressed, and hatred was incited.”
Russian authorities had already blocked access to Facebook after it blocked some posts by state-owned media outlets.
