Facebook, Twitter, Telegram facing $1M in fines from Russian authorities – UPI.com

Russian censors are continuing a crackdown on Western social media giants with the latest round of threatened fines. File Photo by Pixelkult/Pixabay Sept. 4 (UPI) — Western social media giants Telegram, Facebook and Twitter will be called into a Moscow court this month where they will face fines of nearly $1 million for refusing to remove “prohibited content,” Russian media reported Saturday. The companies will face a total of nine administrative offenses during a hearing to held in the Tagansky district of Moscow on Sept. 14, the government news agency Tass reported. Facebook is facing five charges with a possible total fine of around $550,000 while Twitter and Telegram face two charges each with fines of more than $400,000. The report didn’t detail which content the authorities considered offensive, but the latest charges continue a recent pattern of Russian censors clamping down on Western social media giants in the run-up to legislative elections that begin Sept. 17. Facebook has already been fined nearly $675,000 so far this year by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet watchdog, including $200,000 last month for allegedly failing to maintain servers in the country where the data concerning Russian nationals is stored. Twitter was fined $233,000 for “repeated…
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