A court in Moscow imposed a fine of two million rubles ($27,000) on TikTok for promoting LGBT relations and refusing to remove the content, which is prohibited in Russia, Interfax has reported.
"The court found TikTok guilty under part 2 of article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (failure to delete information by the owner of the site if the obligation to delete is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation), [and] imposed a fine of 2 million rubles," Judge Timur Vakhrameev said announcing the decision.
It was previously reported that Roskomnadzor – the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media – drew up a protocol against TikTok for an administrative offense, the reason being the publication of videos dedicated to the LGBT community on the social network.
On March 6, TikTok announced that due to the adoption of a new Russian law criminalizing military fakes, the company is temporarily banning new videos and live broadcasts in Russia.
Since last year, Russian courts have regularly been imposing fines on foreign IT companies for refusing to remove prohibited content on the Russian segment of the Internet.
The total amount of fines imposed on TikTok amounted to 8.1 million rubles ($109,000) by the end of last year. The social media company has already paid most of the fines.