Russia Fines TikTok for ‘LGBT Propaganda,’ Twitch Over Ukraine Content

The U.S. head office of TikTok in Culver City, Calif., on Sept. 15, 2020. Mike Blake/Reuters

MOSCOW—Russia on Tuesday fined TikTok for failing to delete content that violates Russian laws on ‘LGBT propaganda’ and streaming service Twitch for hosting a video interview with a Ukrainian political figure that Moscow said contained ‘fake’ information.

Neither company immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment. Interfax reported that a TikTok representative in the courtroom had insisted the proceedings be terminated, without giving further details.

The fines mark the latest step in Moscow’s long-running dispute with Big Tech, with penalties over content, demands over data storage and some outright bans.

TikTok, owned by Beijing-based IT company ByteDance, was fined 3 million rubles ($51,000), Moscow’s Tagansky District Court said.

News agencies reported that the case against TikTok was based on accusations that the company was “promoting non-traditional values, LGBT, feminism, and a distorted representation of traditional sexual values” on its platform.

Twitch, owned by Amazon, was fined 4 million rubles ($68,000), the court said. News agencies said the case had been drawn up in response to Twitch hosting an interview with Oleksiy Arestovych, and adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Twitch was fined 3 million rubles earlier this year for hosting another Arestovych interview.

Russia passed a law in early March, soon after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, that prohibits “discrediting” the armed forces, with a sentence of up to 15 years. Foreign tech firms have been warned against violating that law.

TASS reported on Tuesday that Twitch faces two new fines of up to 8 million rubles for not deleting what Russia considers unreliable information about the course of its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russia’s ‘LGBT Propaganda’ Law

Russia is considering expanding its existing “gay propaganda” law, passed in 2013, which bans any person or entity from promoting homosexual relationships to children. Lawmakers have argued the law should be expanded to include adults as well and fines for exposing minors to “LGBT propaganda” should be increased.

Russian authorities say they are defending morality in the face of what they argue are un-Russian liberal values promoted by the West.

Separately, the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, also faces a 4 million ruble fine for not deleting “fakes” about the Russian army, RIA reported.

($1 = 58.8000 rubles)