A Moscow court has fined the communications platform "Telegram" 7 million rubles ($80,000) for refusing to remove content it described as a call for terrorist attacks and participation in protests aimed at overthrowing the Russian government, Reuters reported, citing information from TASS today.
"Telegram" did not remove "information or channels containing calls for acts of extremism", the court ruling imposing the fine said.
According to TASS, some of the channels listed in the ruling contained calls for anti-government protests aimed at overthrowing the government, as well as terrorist attacks on railways in order to provide assistance to Ukrainian forces.
The social platform "Telegram", which is based in Dubai and was created by Russian-born Pavel Durov, has nearly 1 billion users and is extremely popular in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Durov returned to Dubai in March after spending several months in France following his arrest in August 2024 and the investigation into the use of "Telegram" for criminal purposes, including fraud, money laundering, and sharing images containing child sexual abuse.