MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The company Meta Platforms, deemed extremist by Russian authorities, may again be fined up to 4 million rubles (nearly $48,000) for refusing to remove content prohibited in Russia, the magistrate court No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow, where the relevant protocol on administrative offence was filed, told TASS.

"The court received a protocol against Meta Platforms, drawn up under Part 2 of Article 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation ("Failure to delete information by the owner of an information resource on the Internet if the obligation to delete it is provided for by Russian legislation"). The maximum penalty under this article is a fine of up to 4 million rubles (nearly $48,000)", the court said, adding that the meeting was scheduled for April 26.

Since last year, Moscow’s courts have regularly fined the company for refusing to remove content prohibited in Russia. At the end of December, the company was fined over 1.9 billion rubles (almost $23 mln) for systematic failure to remove prohibited content.

On March 21, 2022, Moscow's Tverskoy Court satisfied a suit of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and recognized the activity of Instagram and Facebook, social networks owned by Meta Platforms, as extremist and banned their operation in Russia. At the same time, citizens and organizations will not be prosecuted for extremism for using these social networks.