Moscow fines TikTok for refusing to remove LGBT propaganda

MOSCOW: A Moscow court has slapped the Chinese video sharing app TikTok with a fine of USD 50,943 for refusing to remove LGBT propaganda.

Moscow court’s fine on the Chinese app TikTok was followed by a statement by the Federal Youth Agency and the Russian media watchdog. Russian media watchdog reported that TikTok is promoting the “LGBT movement, radical feminism and a distorted view of traditional sexual relations,” reported Russian news agency TASS.

Later, the two agencies made their statement citing a February 10 video posted on TikTok. According to them, in the video an author was talking about teaching English through gender, and also forms a distorted view of non-traditional sexual relations.

“The court found TikTok guilty under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation (failure of the owner of a website to delete information if the obligation to delete such information is included in the legislation of the Russian Federation) and imposed a fine of 3 million rubles,” judge Timur Vakhrameev announced.

Since 2021, TikTok has been fined a total amount of more than USD 186,494 for refusing to remove prohibited information, the agency said adding that since February, the Russian media watchdog has been compiling administrative reports in relation to social networks and instant messengers that have not removed calls to participate in unauthorized actions.

Since the start of 2022, numerous websites have been repeatedly taken to court for violating Russian law after refusing to remove prohibited content. For Instance, Telegram was fined USD 186,494 for refusing to remove prohibited information, including instructions for committing sabotage, as per the media agency.

Earlier US lawmakers introduced a bill to prohibit the Chinese video sharing app TikTok from accessing thier citizens’ user data from within China and block the installation of the application on government devices.