Russian Court Fines WhatsApp $37,000 for Failure to Remove Banned Content

A Russian court has issued a significant fine of three million roubles ($37,000) to the US messenger service WhatsApp for its failure to delete prohibited content.

This penalty marks the first of its kind imposed on WhatsApp for such an offense.

Last year, Russian authorities labeled WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, as “extremist” and imposed a ban on it. As a result, Meta’s other platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, were blocked in Russia, while Twitter faced a similar fate.

However, WhatsApp remained accessible to users.

The recent fine was imposed on WhatsApp due to its inability to remove a chat group that facilitated the sale of an anti-depressant banned in Russia, as reported by Russian news agencies.

This is not the first time that tech giants have faced consequences for their failure to delete illegal content. In the past, Google, Twitter, TikTok, and the messaging app Telegram have all been fined for similar violations.

It’s worth noting that WhatsApp had previously received a fine for non-compliance with local rules that require the data of Russian users to be stored on servers located within the country.