Russian court fines TikTok for not deleting LGBT material, Twitch over Ukraine content

A Russian court on Tuesday fined TikTok for failing to delete LGBT material, the country’s latest crackdown on Big Tech companies.The Tagansky District Court in Moscow issued the 3 million rouble (€51,000) penalty to the short-video sharing platform following a complaint by Russian regulators.TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.According to the case file, state communications regulator Roskomnadzor complained about a video published on the platform earlier this year that breaches Russian laws against promoting “LGBT, radical feminism and a distorted view on traditional sexual relations”.The Russian government has been stepping up efforts to enforce greater control over the internet and social media, issuing penalties over content, demands over data storage and some outright bans. Earlier this year, a court fined chat service WhatsApp and disappearing message platform Snapchat for failing to store Russian users’ data on local servers, following complaints by Roskomnadzor.Music streaming service Spotify and Match Group, which owns dating app Tinder, also have been hit by Russian fines.Twitch also fined over Ukraine contentOn Tuesday, Russia also fined streaming service Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, for hosting a video interview with a Ukrainian political figure that Moscow said contained…
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