Russia has fined Apple for the third time on Thursday for failing to delete “inaccurate content” about the Ukraine war from its apps and podcasts, according to state news agencies.
A Moscow court fined Apple 400,000 roubles (£3,328.98, $4,274) for failing to take podcasts offline and remove apps from Russia’s App Store that provided what the Kremlin believes is incorrect information about the ongoing conflict.
This comes just months after the tech giant was given an antitrust fine of £9.5m in February by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for allegedly abusing its dominance in the country’s mobile apps market. Apple, which did not comment then, had previously appealed and “respectfully disagreed” with the FAS ruling.
Prior to that, Russia fined Apple $13.7m for allegedly forcing developers in the country to use Apple’s payment services with the iOS App Store.
Apple stopped all sales of its products in Russia and limited how its Apple Pay service is used in the country in February 2022, shortly after Russian troops were sent into Ukraine.
According to Interfax, the offending content was allegedly “aimed at involving minors in illegal activities in order to destabilise the political situation in the Russian Federation”.
The state news agency added that Apple’s lawyers were present and requested that the hearing be held behind closed doors with no access to the media, in order to prevent the disclosure of its trade secrets.
The Standard has approached Apple for comment. Apple has not yet publically addressed these allegations.
Russia has long clashed with other tech giants and popular online services over content and censorship, but these disputes have escalated since the war began.
In October, Russia fined Amazon £33,290 for failing to delete content relating to suicide methods and drug use while, in December 2021, Google was fined a whopping £73m for failing to delete YouTube videos that it believed contained “prohibited” content.
Russia even fines its own tech companies — in June, Yandex, often considered to be the “Google of Russia”, was fined £16,645 for refusing to hand over user data to local authorities in order to “search for people or ensure national security”, according to Moscow Times.
