Meta-owned WhatsApp fined by Russia for not removing banned content: Report

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp was fined 3 million roubles ($37,080) by a Russian court on Thursday.

According to media reports, the platform was fined because it did not delete the banned content, making this its first fine in Russia for such an offence.

WhatsApp's parent company Meta Inc was banned in Russia in 2022 after it was termed as an 'extremist' organisation. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is a very popular application among Russians and it has not faced penalties previously for failing to remove prohibited information, the report added.

However, other Meta services like Facebook and Instagram have been fined over content, and are now banned in Russia, along with the likes of Twitter and Alphabet's Google.

Citing RIA news agency, the reports added that Thursday's fine was due to WhatsApp's refusal to remove information about the drug Lyrica, whose sale and manufacture are prohibited in Russia.

It is, however, worth noting that WhatsApp was previously fined for its alleged refusal to comply with Russia's data law and store users' data on the servers in the country.

The report also stated that Moscow has for years clashed with Big Tech over content, censorship, data, and local representation in disputes that escalated after Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Meanwhile, in India, WhatsApp banned 7.4 million bad accounts in the month of April only, in compliance with the new IT rules 2021.

According to an IANS report, "The most popular messaging platform, which has nearly 500 million users in the country, received another record 4,377 complaint reports in April in the country, and the records 'actioned' were 234.