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Moscow court fines Discord for $36,230 over LGBT propaganda

During the monitoring of the Discord social platform on July 8 and July 11, 2024, the Roskomnadzor registered the facts of non-restriction of access to illegal information

MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. Moscow’s Tagansky court fined the Discord messenger for 3.5 million rubles (approximately $36,233) over two episodes, related to online propaganda of LGBT relations, according to the case materials.

"During the monitoring of the Discord social platform on July 8 and July 11, 2024, the Roskomnadzor [Russia’s communications watchdog - TASS] registered the facts of non-restriction of access to illegal information promoting non-traditional sexual relations, pedophilia, and gender reassignment, published online, by the platform’s owner. The abovementioned information was posted on June 29, but the access to this information has not been restricted by the owner, as proven by two screenshots," the September 30 court ruling says.

Previously, the media reported that the court fined Discord for 3.5 million rubles for violation of the law on self-moderation. However, the reason for this decision was not disclosed.

This offense carries the maximum fine of up to 4 million rubles for legal entities.

In February, 2021, Russia passed a law on self-moderation of social platforms, which obliges such platforms to detect and block illegal content on their own.

Discord is a messenger that supports VoIP and video conference functionality, intended for use of various enthusiast communities. In 2023, a Moscow court fined Discord for 6 million rubles for failure to remove child pornography materials. Previously, the Roskomnadzor told TASS that the watchdog blocked the platform in Russia for a violation of national law.

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