A Court In Moscow Fines Apple IDR 64.5 Million For 'Unaccured' Content Of Military Operations In Ukraine

Russia fined Apple for content about war. (photo: twitter @Russiaconflict)

JAKARTA - On Thursday, August 3, a court in Moscow imposed a fine of 400,000 rubles (IDR 64.5 million) on Apple for not removing content deemed "inaccurate" regarding what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, as reported by Russian news agencies.

TASS, a Russian news agency, reported that this was the first time Apple had been fined such a violation.

Until now, Apple has not responded to requests for comment via email. Some time after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022, the company stopped selling its products in Russia and also restricted Apple Pay services in the country.

Moscow has clashed with Big Tech over the years over content, censorship, data and local representations in the growing dispute after Russia sent armed forces to Ukraine.

In February, Apple paid a fine of 906 million rubles (Rp145 billion) in Russia's antitrust case alleging abuse of its dominance in the mobile app market, according to Russia's Federal Antitrust Service (FAS).

Apple previously filed an appeal and "respectfully disagreed" with the FAS decision stating that the distribution of applications through the iOS operating system provides competitive benefits for its own products.

The same court then imposed a fine of 3 million rubles (Rp 481 million) on the Wikimedia Foundation, the Wikipedia owner, for similar violations.

Wikimedia has been fined several times and previously stated that the information complained by Russian authorities came from reliable sources and was in accordance with Wikipedia standards.