In connection with protests against the imprisonment of the Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny, the short message service Twitter has been fined in Russia. Because the US company should not have deleted demo calls to minors in mid-January, it must now pay a total of 8.9 million rubles (around 99,200 euros), a court ruled in Moscow today.
In the course of the day, according to the Interfax agency, the court also wanted to rule on similar violations that the Russian media supervisory authority Roskomnadzor accuses Facebook. Roskomnadzor had already announced fines against social networks at the beginning of the year.
Big protests in January
At the end of January, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in numerous Russian cities for the release of the popular opposition politician Navalny, who is now imprisoned in a prison camp.
The judiciary accuses Nawalnys employees of targeting minors to participate in the unauthorized rallies via social networks. The 44-year-old’s supporters, in turn, see this as an excuse to take action against the protests and their organizers.
Slowed down the pace
Because Twitter is said not to have deleted other prohibited posts – including child pornographic material – some Twitter content has only been transmitted to many devices at lower data speeds in Russia for weeks. According to Roskomnadzor, the short message service is even threatened with a complete blockade.
Critics see this as an attempt to restrict the right to freedom of expression in social networks. Hundreds of Internet sites have already been blocked in Russia, including those of government opponents.
