Russia Fines Amazon.Com Inc., IDR 1 Billion For Not Censoring Drug and Suicide Content

Russia fined Amazon Twitch 8 million streaming service ruble, (photo: fok.pixabay)

JAKARTA - A Moscow court on Tuesday said it had fined Amazon.com Inc 4 million rubles (IDR 1 billion) for failing to remove banned content related to drug use and suicide. This is the first punishment in Russia for the US tech giant.

Russia has fined other foreign tech companies for not removing content, part of what critics say is a campaign by the Kremlin to limit the influence of Western tech companies, especially since Moscow sent its armed forces to Ukraine.

The Tagansky District Court said it had fined Amazon 4 million rubles in two separate cases, although its statement did not specify what that was. They also fined streaming service Amazon Twitch 8 million rubles, also for not removing banned content.

The Interfax news agency reported that Amazon's fine involved content about the distribution of drugs and information on how to commit suicide. Amazon itself did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Twitch has been fined previously for hosting a video interview with Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which Moscow said contained "false" information.

On Tuesday, October 18, Russian news agency, TASS reported that one of the two 4 million ruble sentences for Twitch relates to the broadcast of a new interview with Arestovych, conducted by a Russian lawyer who has been designated a 'foreign agent'.

Twitch did not respond to requests for comment, but TASS quoted a Twitch attorney as saying that the offending video had been removed by the time the case was considered by the court.

Meta Platforms Inc. once found guilty of "extremist activity" and its social networks Facebook and Instagram banned, while Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) has been fined for a series of alleged misconduct and its Russian subsidiary has filed for bankruptcy.

According to TASS, Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, on Tuesday also demanded that Google restore access to the YouTube account of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.