Court upholds fine of 1.5 mln rubles imposed on TikTok over failure to remove content prohibited in Russia

MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Moscow's Tagansky District Court has upheld a fine imposed on TikTok over failure to remove content prohibited in Russia.

"The appeal against the ruling of a justice of the peace dated May 28 has been dismissed," court press secretary Zulfia Gurinchuk told Interfax.

At the end of May, a justice of the peace from Judicial District No. 422 in the Tagansky district of Moscow found TikTok guilty of a breach of Russian laws and imposed a fine of 1.5 million rubles on the social network.

TikTok was earlier fined 2.6 million rubles. According to the court, the company has already paid that fine.

Since the beginning of this year, Google, Twitter , Facebook, Telegram, TikTok, and WhatsApp have been repeatedly held administratively liable for violations of Russian laws.

The overall sum of fines has exceeded 80 million rubles for Facebook, neared 60 million rubles for Twitter, and stood at about 40 million rubles for Telegram.

The companies were charged with failure by an Internet resource owner to remove information whenever it is compelled to do so by Russian laws.

Since February 11, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has been filing administrative motions in regard to various social networks that have failed or have been late to remove calls for unsanctioned demonstrations, including calls addressing minors.