Moscow court fines Facebook and Twitter for failing to delete illegal content News
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Moscow court fines Facebook and Twitter for failing to delete illegal content

Moscow’s Tagansky District Court imposed fines Thursday against Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc, and Pavel Durov’s Telegram. The Russian government stated that these fines were the result of Facebook and Twitter failing to delete illegal content.

The court first decided the case against the tech giants back in April and found that the companies violated the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses. These violations of the social media protocol complaint system were lodged by Russia’s communications watchdog The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).

The Moscow court initially gave Facebook and Twitter two choices, to delete the illegal content or face pecuniary fines. The illegal content ranged from child pornography, drug abuse information to protest organizations for opposition politicians like Alexei Navalny.

Facebook was fined 6 million Rubles ($81,000) while Twitter was fined for two offenses totaling 11 million Rubles ($149,000). Messaging app Telegram, founded by self-exiled Russian Pavel Durov, was also fined for three offenses, which totaled 11 million Rubles.

Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram have yet to respond to the decision or the fines.

This ruling is the aftermath of the barrage of new tech regulations and restrictive laws that Russian President Vladimir Putin has implemented over the last 6 months. Most recently, on July 1, 2021, Putin signed a law that will force Silicon Valley tech giants to open offices in Russia if they wish to operate in the market. The new law states, “A foreign entity, carrying out activities on the internet in Russia, is obliged to create a branch, open an office or establish a Russian legal entity.”

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