A Russian court on Thursday imposed WhatsApp's first penalties in Russia for failing to remove prohibited content: three million roubles ($37,080).
Moscow last year designated the parent firm of WhatsApp, Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), as a "extremist" organization, but the chat software, which is very popular in Russia, has never been fined for failing to delete illegal content.
Other Meta services, Facebook and Instagram – now banned in Russia – have been fined over content, as have the likes of Twitter and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google.
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WhatsApp, however, has previously been fined for its alleged refusal to comply with Russian data law and store Russian users' data on servers in the country.
According to the RIA news agency, WhatsApp was fined on Thursday because it refused to delete information regarding the narcotic Lyrica, whose sale and manufacture are illegal in Russia.
A request for comment made outside of U.S. business hours did not immediately receive a response from Meta.
The court also assessed a three million rouble fine against Wikipedia's owner, the Wikimedia Foundation, for failing to remove what Moscow deemed to be "false information" regarding its military operation in Ukraine.
At the time of the request, Wikimedia had not provided an immediate response to the request for comment. In previous statements, Wikimedia has asserted that the information contested by Russian authorities was well-sourced and complied with the standards set by Wikipedia.
Over the years, Moscow has been engaged in conflicts with major technology companies, concerning issues such as content, censorship, data, and local representation. These disputes intensified following Russia's military intervention in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
