Russia fines Twitter for failure to delete illegal content

Aerial photo taken on April 2, 2021 shows a view of the Baihua Lake at dusk in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

A Moscow court on Friday fined Twitter 8.9 million rubles (about 116,568 US dollars) for violating Russia's Internet legislation by failing to remove content banned in the country.

Part of the content in question urged minors to take part in illegal protests, promoted drug use, and spread child pornography.

Twitter has 60 days to pay the fines from the day the ruling comes into force.

Last month, Russia's telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor started to limit Twitter's traffic due to its failure to remove banned content, and warned about the possibility of completely blocking Twitter.