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Apple receives a big fine for violating Putin's anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
This is not the first time Apple has run afoul of Russian authorities for refusing to censor content under Putin.
Apple was fined over 10 million rubles ($130,000) by a court in Russia for extremist ‘LGBT propaganda’ and refusing to censor content, the Russian-language Mediazona reports.
Judge Alexandra Anokhina of Moscow’s Tagansky District Court presided over the hearing on Monday. The proceedings took place behind closed doors at Apple’s request, so it was unclear what content instigated the cases against them.
Related: Duolingo deletes LGBTQ+ content in Russia after complaint
Apple faced a total of four charges at the opening of the hearing.
Three charges related to “LGBT propaganda,” for which Apple was fined 2.5 million rubles per count. Apple faced an additional charge for refusing to censor content at the request of the authorities, for which it received a fine of three million rubles.
Related: Russian man fined for joking he started the international LGBTQ+ movement
During the proceedings, two additional charges were brought before the court. Apple Distribution International Ltd., an Irish division that founded the Russian company Apple Rus, was charged with two counts of promulgating ‘LGBT propaganda.’
Apple had previously run afoul of Russian authorities for refusing to remove podcasts containing “information aimed at destabilizing the political situation in the Russian Federation.”
In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill expanding a ban on what it calls “LGBT propaganda,” outlawing the promotion of marriage equality or the suggestion that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.”
Related: Police raid bars, detain 50+ people in Russian anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown
The new laws broadened the scope of a 2013 law banning the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors, extending that ban to adults.
In 2023, the Russian Supreme Court granted a petition to label the “international LGBT social movement” as “extremist” and ban its activities, advocacy, and support within the country.
Late last year, Putin signed two more anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law. One bans the adoption of Russian children by foreign nationals from countries that permit gender-affirming care. The other bans “childfree propaganda” that promotes nontraditional families as a positive environment for children.
