Russia has fined Twitter for refusing to delete tweets calling on young people to protest the imprisonment of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

In Moscow, a court ruled that the US social media company failed to remove public calls to minors to participate in demonstrations in mid-January. That is why Twitter was ordered to pay a total of 8.9 million rubles.

According to the Interfax news agency, the court would later also rule on similar allegations against Facebook.

The allegations were levelled by the Russian media authority Roskomnadzor. It had already announced at the beginning of the year that it would take action against social networks. Roskomnadzor has even threatened the social media platform with a complete ban.

Critics see this as an attempt to limit the right to free speech on social networks. Hundreds of websites have already been blocked in Russia, including those of government opponents.

Because Twitter has also failed to remove other banned messages, such as child pornography, according to Russia, many users in Russia have started loading Twitter messages at slower speeds in recent weeks.

In late January, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in numerous Russian cities to demand the release of the widespread opposition politician Navalny, who has since been held in a prison camp.