(Reuters) – Social media site Reddit faces being fined for the first time in Russia for failing to remove “banned content” that Moscow says discredits the Russian military, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a Moscow court.
Reddit joins a list of sites under scrutiny in Russia for failing to remove content Moscow deems illegal, including Wikimedia, streaming service Twitch and Google.
Reddit could be fined up to 4 million rubles ($43,895) for failing to remove “knowingly false information” about the actions of the Soviet Union during World War II and content that discredits the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as other “extremist information”.
Reddit was not immediately available for comment.
Since invading Ukraine last year, Russia has tightened controls on media and bloggers’ coverage of the conflict, introducing tougher penalties for “discrediting” the actions of its armed forces or publishing false information about them.
($1 = 91.1275 rubles)
(Reporting by Caleb Davis; editing by Alexander Marrow and Jason Neely)