The judgment contributes to a contraction of expression in Russia and demonstrates the government’s continuous attempts to censor social media platforms. Some of those Facebook and Instagram posts that the judgment listed as prohibited content were critical of Russia and the Russian authorities. One Facebook post listed in the court ruling criticized Russia’s prison system for the lack of healthcare action amid the pandemic and called for urgent changes. The author of that very post is Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist and founder of Gulagu.Net, a project with the mission to resist corruption and torture in Russia.
Meta – earlier as Facebook – had previously been prosecuted in Russia for its failure to comply with Roskomnadzor’s requests on content access restriction. The legal basis for prosecution in those cases was the same as in the present case: Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses the Russian Federation on “violation of the procedure for restricting access to information, information resources, access to which is subject to restriction in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.” The earlier fines imposed upon the company ranged from 6 million to 26 million rubles, but the fine imposed in the present case, however, is unprecedented for the company – almost 2 billion rubles (more than USD$27 million at the time).
On the same day as this case (December 24, 2021), another case was heard in parallel and Magistrates’ Court №422 in the Tagansky District of Moscow, Russia, found Google guilty under Part 5 of Art. 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, holding that Google repeatedly failed to remove access to those Internet information resources that had to be removed in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Google’s case followed the patterns of this case against Meta: Roskomnadzor’s requests concerned information considered harmful to minors and inaccurate socially significant information on YouTube; Roskomnadzor compiled a protocol on an administrative offense based on Google’s failure to comply with its requests; and the Court imposed a revenue-based fine of more than 7.2 billion rubles (around USD$98.4 million at the time).
This case did not set a binding or persuasive precedent either within or outside its jurisdiction. The significance of this case is undetermined at this point in time.