Russia Fines Booking.com $71,000 Over “LGBT Propaganda”
The reservation service was punished over a Pride Month newsletter about accommodating LGBTQ guests at partner hotels.
Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has fined the international hotel reservation service Booking.com a total of 6 million rubles, or approximately $71,365, for allegedly promoting “LGBT propaganda” and failing to remove banned content.
The charges stemmed from a newsletter sent to foreign partner hotels that referenced “accommodating LGBT guests during Pride Month” and included a photo that Russian censors deemed objectionable, according to Ostorozhno, Novosti, an independent Russian news outlet on Telegram.
Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal agency that monitors and censors mass media, telecommunications, and information technology, objected to the newsletter and photo and demanded their removal. The regulator alleged that Booking.com failed to comply in a timely manner, accusing the reservation site of promoting “non-traditional relationships” in violation of Russia’s expanded law prohibiting the dissemination or transmission of “LGBT propaganda.”
Booking.com said it removed the content on March 11 and that Roskomnadzor had sent warnings to “random” email addresses, despite the service maintaining a dedicated address for communications from government agencies. Booking.com also argued that only adults are allowed to use the site, prompting the judge to ask its lawyer whether users were required to provide a passport to view the posts.
The Booking.com fine is the latest development in Russia’s escalating crackdown on LGBTQ visibility. A court has designated the Russian LGBT Network, the country’s primary LGBTQ rights group, an “extremist” organization, following a Russian Supreme Court ruling that branded the “international LGBT movement” an “extremist organization” on par with radical terrorist groups.
Since that ruling, Russian censors and police have raided clubs catering to LGBTQ patrons or hosting LGBTQ-themed parties; banned pro-LGBTQ nonprofits from operating in the country; and fined, jailed, or deported people for allegedly promoting gender-nonconforming behavior, depicting same-sex relationships, or merely displaying rainbow symbols.
Earlier this week, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow — which heard the Booking.com case — fined several social media platforms 3.5 million rubles, or approximately $41,629, each for failing to monitor prohibited content. Twitch was found to have streams promoting drugs, the possession and purchase of which are heavily penalized in Russia, while TikTok was flagged for three videos promoting “non-traditional relationships.”
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