Russia fines FB, Twitter

Moscow: Russia fined Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday for not deleting banned content, adding to a slew of penalties the government has already imposed on foreign tech giants.

Russia has been tightening controls over US-based tech companies and last week accused them of interfering in parliamentary polls due later this month. A court in Moscow slapped Facebook with five fines on Tuesday totalling 21 million rubles ($288,000), according to an official Telegram channel.

The same court fined Twitter five million rubles. Facebook has so far been fined 90 million rubles in Russia and Twitter 45 million, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

Russia often takes legal action against internet platforms for not deleting content it labels illegal, such as pornographic material or posts condoning drugs and suicide. The judicial authorities have also fined Google citing the same offences and for failing to store the data of Russian users on domestic services.