Moscow Court Fines Twitter Over $80,000 For Failure To Delete Illegal Information

Daniyal Sohail Published April 02, 2021 | 04:26 PM

A Moscow district court fined social media giant Twitter 3.2 million rubles ($42,000) in the first case and 3.3 million rubles in the second one for "systematic failures to delete illegal information," while more is pending after the hearing on the third case later in the day, the court told Sputnik on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2021) A Moscow district court fined social media giant Twitter 3.2 million rubles ($42,000) in the first case and 3.3 million rubles in the second one for "systematic failures to delete illegal information," while more is pending after the hearing on the third case later in the day, the court told Sputnik on Friday.

"The magistrate found the organization Twitter Inc guilty of committing an administrative offense ... and ruled to impose an administrative fine on the entity in the amount of 3.2 million rubles," the court said, commenting on the first case.

"By the decision of the magistrate ... of the Tagansky district of Moscow, Twitter lnc was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under ... Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, sentenced to an administrative fine of 3.3 million rubles," the court stated with regard to the second case.

The court clarified that the company must pay the fine no later than 60 days since the decision enters into force.

In total, Russia's media watchdog Roskomnadzor submitted three complaints against the company for failure to remove information. The remaining one the court will consider later in the day.

According to Roskomnadzor, if Twitter fails to restrict access to content from its platforms after receiving the notification, it can be fined for up to four million rubles. In case of a repeated offense, the fine increases to one-tenth of the company's total annual revenue.

Failure to block content containing calls for extremism, child pornography, and illegal drugs can be punished by up to eight million rubles, while repeated offense amounts to one-fifth of the company's annual revenue, Roskomnadzor stated.