According to RIA Novosti on Tuesday, Apple Distribution International LTD was fined 3.6 million rubles ($36,800) by Moscow’s Tagansky Court for failing to remove content that was illegal.
Since Moscow moved its armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has punished a number of international companies for failing to remove content in recent years. Critics claim this is part of a Kremlin attempt to limit the influence of Western technology corporations.
The court decision states that Apple disregarded the directive to take down two podcasts that contained content “aimed at destabilising the political situation in the Russian Federation.”
However, the corporation was fined 400,000 rubles less than the minimum amount.
A Russian court recently fined Google two undecillion roubles (two plus thirty-six zeroes) for limiting access to Russian state media stations on YouTube.
Apple might have well convinced the court after recently convincing a federal jury that Masimo’s smartwatches violated two of its design patents.
The jury in Delaware agreed with Apple that Masimo’s W1 and Freedom watches and chargers wilfully violated Apple’s patent rights in smartwatch designs, and awarded the company $250 in damages.
We earlier reported that Meta, the social networking behemoth, has announced that it is banning Russian media site RT, only days after the Biden administration accused it of serving as an instrument of Moscow’s spy agencies.
