MOSCOW: Russia is seeking an additional 24 million roubles ($321,586) in fines from US tech giant Twitter for failing to remove content banned in Russia, the TASS news agency cited a court as saying on Wednesday.
State communications regulator Roskomnadzor said last week that Twitter was complying with a demand to remove banned content, but taking too long to do so. A punitive slowdown on the service has been extended until May 15.
TASS said six reports concerning Twitter, each carrying a possible fine of up to 4 million roubles over a failure to remove content, had been lodged with a Moscow court under Russia’s Administrative Offences Code.
No date for the hearing has been set, TASS said. Roskomnadzor, Twitter and the court did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In April, a court issued three separate fines against Twitter, totalling 8.9 million roubles, over accusations it had failed to delete banned content.
Roskomnadzor has said it wants Twitter to delete content that contains child pornography, drug abuse information or calls for minors to commit suicide.
Twitter denies allowing its platform to be used to promote illegal behavior, says it has a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual exploitation, and prohibits the promotion of suicide or self-harm.
Russia has in recent months taken steps to exert more control over the operations of foreign social media platforms and tech companies. Russian authorities are suing Google, Facebook and others for allegedly failing to delete posts urging children to take part in illegal protests.
The cases were opened after protests nationwide over the jailing in February of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin.
Separately, Apple was last week fined $12 million for alleged abuse of its dominance in the mobile applications market.
Russia seeks extra fines against Twitter over ‘banned content’: TASS
https://arab.news/53y44
Russia seeks extra fines against Twitter over ‘banned content’: TASS
- State communications regulator Roskomnadzor said last week that Twitter was complying with a demand to remove banned content, but taking too long to do so
- TASS said six reports concerning Twitter, each carrying a possible fine of up to 4 million roubles over a failure to remove content
Trending: BBC report suggests sexual abuse and torture in UAE-run Yemeni prisons
- The investigation was produced by British-Yemeni BBC journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi
LONDON: A recent BBC video report diving into what it says was UAE-run prison in Yemen has drawn widespread attention online and raised fresh questions about the role of the emirates in the war-torn country.
The report, published earlier this month and recently subtitled in Arabic and shared on social media, alleged that the prison — located inside a former UAE military base — was used to detain and torture detainees during interrogations, including using sexual abuse as a method.
The investigation was produced by British-Yemeni BBC journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi, who toured the site, looking into cells and what appear to be interrogation rooms.
Al-Maghafi said the Yemeni government invited the BBC team to document the facilities for the first time.
A former detainee, speaking anonymously, described severe abuse by UAE soldiers: “When we were interrogated, it was the worst. They even sexually abused us and say they will bring in the doctor. The ‘so-called’ doctor was an Emirati soldier. He beat us and ordered the soldiers to beat us too. I tried to kill myself multiple times to make it end.”
Yemeni information minister, Moammar al Eryani also appears in the report, clarifying that his government was unable to verify what occurred within sites that were under Emirati control.
“We weren’t able to access locations that were under UAE control until now,” he said, adding that “When we liberated it (Southern Yemen), we discovered these prisons, even though we were told by many victims that these prisons exist, but we didn't believe it was true.”
زارت بي بي سي مواقع داخل قواعد سابقة لدولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة في اليمن، حيث يقول محتجزون إنهم تعرضوا لسوء المعاملة. pic.twitter.com/BfS5GRxULp
— BBC News عربي (@BBCArabic) January 23, 2026
The BBC says it approached the UAE government for comment, however Abu Dhabi did not respond to its inquiries.
Allegations of secret detention sites in southern Yemen are not new. The BBC report echoes earlier reporting by the Associated Press (AP), which cited hundreds of men detained during counterterrorism operations that disappeared into a network of secret prisons where abuse was routine and torture severe.
In a 2017 investigation, the AP documented at least 18 alleged clandestine detention sites — inside military bases, ports, an airport, private villas and even a nightclub — either run by the UAE or Yemeni forces trained and backed by Abu Dhabi.
The report cited accounts from former detainees, relatives, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials.
Following the investigation, Yemen’s then-interior minister called on the UAE to shut down the facilities or hand them over, and said that detainees were freed in the weeks following the allegations.
The renewed attention comes amid online speculation about strains between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over Yemen.
