Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has fined the Telegram messenger 4 million rubles for refusing to remove several channels calling for the Urals to be separated from Russia, TASS reports, citing the court’s ruling. According to the document, Roskomnadzor sent Telegram’s administration notifications about violations of the procedure for disseminating information, but the messenger failed to remove the data within the period established by law – one day after receiving the request.
Among the channels that Roskomnadzor demanded to be removed were also resources promoting far-right ideas and calling for support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The first to notice these channels were the prosecutor’s office employees, who transferred the data to Roskomnadzor, following the court decision. It was reported on 15 October that the Tagansky Court fined Telegram 4 million rubles for refusing to remove information prohibited in Russia (Part 2 of Article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). However, the reason for bringing the messenger to administrative responsibility was not stated at the time.
This is not the first time Telegram has been fined for refusing to remove prohibited information. In July, the Tagansky Court fined the messenger 3 million rubles for failing to remove calls for anti-government actions. In June 2023, Telegram also received a 4 million ruble fine after refusing to remove 32 channels that, according to the court, published false information about the war in Ukraine.
In August, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was detained in Paris. French authorities accused him of insufficient moderation of the messenger and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. After that, Durov declared his readiness to cooperate with the authorities. In particular, he said that Telegram would disclose to law enforcement the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate the platform’s rules.
The messenger founder also said that moderators had removed all problematic content from Telegram. “If you still manage to find something unsafe or illegal in Telegram search, please let us know via @SearchReport,” he addressed users.
MT
