Apple threatens to suspend activity on the territory of Russia or a fine of 1 million rubles for the promotion of homosexuality, reports Gazeta. UMVD across the Kirov region opened an administrative case for Apple smileys — Emoji, which, according to law enforcement, violate the legislation of the Russian Federation. Earlier Apple has already received complaints for alleged presence of LGBT propaganda, but still in connection with any criminal or administrative cases is not reached.
Kirov police initiated an administrative case on the fact of Apple propaganda of homosexuality among minors. The reason for the initiation of the case of steel materials to verify the application of a local lawyer Yaroslav Mikhaylov, who saw the promotion of LGBT values in the emoticons that appeared in the updated operating system iOS 8.3.
According to the reply of UMVD the Russian Federation across the Kirov region, the case was filed back in August of this year, and emojis were sent for examination in the inter-regional Bureau of forensic examinations of them. Sikorsky. The experts of this institution eventually have to decide whether the harmless smileys information that causes harm to the health or development of children. If the Bureau will confirm the suspicions of the police about the promotion of homosexuality in accordance with article 6.21 of the administrative code, Apple will have to pay a fine in the amount of 800 000 to 1 million rubles, or the company may suspend activity on the whole territory of Russia.
As explained by the lawyer, he initially appealed to the Prosecutor General of Russia and the Commissioner for children’s rights Pavel Astakhov because Emoji Apple. “My application was forwarded to the police of the Kirov region. As far as I know, the audit was conducted by the Department “K”, which deals with crimes in the sphere of information technologies. The police came to the conclusion that my complaint was justified, and opened a case on an administrative offense,” — said Mikhailov.
The lawyer believes that Apple’s legal actions directly violate the current legislation of Russia banning the promotion of same-sex relationships, in particular the Constitution of the Russian Federation and norms of the Federal law “On protection of children from information harmful to their health and development” and the Federal law “On basic guarantees of child rights in the Russian Federation”.
In the past Mikhailov had sought compensation from Apple for overpricing the books in iBooks. The amount paid to the lawyer from the company amounted to 2 204 rubles 81 kopecks in addition, he became famous for organizing picket at the house Navalny, as well as a complaint to the UK on a photo on instagram of Ksenia Sobchak in the robes of a priest and a fake beard. In addition, he did not like the actions of the administration of the Russian version of Wikipedia, which refused to comply with the requirements of Roscomnadzor about blocking article about hashish.
Earlier on Emoji ganged member of the legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Vitaly Milonov has angered the icons of same-sex couples, which appeared in the new version of IOS. According to the Deputy, the company had to act in Russia as in China: “If iOS wants to stay in Russia, Apple is expected to release a Russian patch for China, which would make this system does not contradict the Russian legislation. In China they made their program relevant legal restrictions of that country. Otherwise they should label icon iOS 8.3 “18+” and sold only in specialty stores together with whips and gags”. The MP also sent a letter to the new technologies, with a copy to the Prosecutor, in which he asked to pay attention to LGBT advocacy in the production of the company from Cupertino. As the Supervisory authority has responded to treatment Milonov, is still unknown.
In July of this year, a Moscow lawyer Vsevolod Sazonov has addressed in court with the claim about protection of the rights of consumers to LLC “Apple Rus”, the official equipment supplier of Apple in Russia. He also felt that the “tolerant smiles” Apple immature form in the minds of adolescents installation of nontraditional sexual relations, but Savelovsky court of Moscow the claim was denied.
