Moscow court fines Wikimedia, Pinterest 3 and 1 mln rubles respectively for not removing content

MOSCOW. March 19 (Interfax) - Moscow's Tagansky District Court has handed down fines of three and one million rubles respectively to the Wikimedia Foundation, which maintains Wikipedia's infrastructure, and the Pinterest service for failing to remove content access to which is prohibited, the court's press service told Interfax.

"Wikimedia Foundation Inc. was sentenced to an administrative fine of three million rubles. Pinterest Europe Limited was sentenced to an administrative fine of one million rubles," the press service said on Tuesday.

Both companies were found guilty of failing to delete content which must be removed.

Major web services such as Apple, Google, Telegram, Facebook (an information resource of an entity banned in Russia), Twitter, TikTok and the Wikimedia Foundation have been repeatedly fined in Russia in recent years for not removing prohibited content. In particular, the cases are related to the companies' failure to remove information about the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, which Russian agencies describe as inaccurate.