The Tagansky District Court of Moscow fined Apple 10.5 million rubles (approximately $130,000) on Monday in three administrative charges of LGBTQA+ “propaganda,” and one charge of refusing to remove prohibited material.
Under Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, LGBTQA+ “propaganda” is defined as a promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations among minors,” the “distorted idea of social equivalence of traditional and non-traditional sexual relations,” or the creation of interest in “non-traditional” sexual relationships.
This is not the first administrative action that Russia has taken against Apple. In November 2024, a district court in Moscow fined Apple 3.6 million rubles (approximately $44,000) for refusing to delete two podcasts with “information aimed at destabilizing the political situation in the Russian Federation.” It is, however, the first action in connection with the LGBTQA+ community.
Fining Apple is the latest instance of a recent wave of legal actions taken against the LGBTQA+ community in Russia. Earlier this month, a citizen was fined for having posted a picture of Pepe the Frog in a rainbow wig and a picture of German Marxist historical figures Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg with a rainbow flag in 2020, before the LGBTQA+ “movement” was determined to be an “extremist organization” in Russia. In February 2024, a young woman was incarcerated for five days for wearing earrings of a rainbow-colored frog wearing a mushroom hat. A sociology expert who was called on by the court affirmed that LGBTQA+ symbols, including frog earrings, destroy family values and negatively affect young people, while also assuring that rainbows themselves are not prohibited in Russia.
One of the largest recent shutdowns of LGBTQA+ “propaganda” is the current case of the publishing giant Eksmo in Russia. In 2023, Eksmo purchased publishing company Popcorn Books, which produced a number of widely popular LGBTQA+ young adult novels in 2021, before the change in laws deemed the LGBTQA+ movement “extremist” in 2023. Currently, 11 people from several publishing companies have been arrested, and Eksmo is sending out lists of 48 titles to bookstores asking them to return or destroy the books.
