Russia fines TikTok and Twitch for ‘LGBT propaganda’
Russia's anti-LGBTQ ‘gay propaganda’ has been in place since 2013 and could soon be expanded.
Russia has reportedly fined TikTok for failing to remove content that violated Russia’s anti-LGBTQ ‘gay propaganda’ laws as well as the streaming service Twitch for an interview with a Ukrainian political figure.
Moscow’s Tagansky District Court fined TikTok 3 million roubles (roughly £44,800) on Tuesday (4 October), according to Reuters.
The fine was based on the charges that TikTok promoted “non-traditional sexual values, videos featuring LGBT, feminism, and distorted representation of traditional sexual values,” according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Reports also state that a TikTok representative at the court hearings had insisted the proceedings be closed and terminated.
The Russian law has been in place since 2013 and bans the ‘promotion’ of homosexual relationships with children but there have been recent developments that suggest this law (officially the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values act) would be expanded to include adults.
Frighteningly, under this new proposed law, the ability to punish and prohibit LGBTQ+ existence in Russia will only increase.
Under suggested legislation, the penalty for letting children access LGBTQ+ content would be doubled to 2 million roubles for entities, with the fine increasing to up to 5 million roubles if the offence took place online or in the media.
Additionally, Twitch was fined 4 million roubles (roughly £59,000) for hosting a ‘fake news’ interview with Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Twitch had already been fined earlier this year for a different interview with Arestovych hosted on the platform.
These fines mark Moscow’s continued dispute with Big Tech, enforcing content penalties and outright bans of platforms that host content seen to ‘discredit’ the Russian military or present the ‘promotion’ of feminism or LGBTQ+ rights.
Neither same-sex marriages nor civil unions of same-sex couples are allowed in Russia; as of 2020, the approval Constitutional amendment led to the banning of same-sex marriage.