The Russian Federal Bailiff Service has started collecting an almost 2 billion rubles ($24 million) fine from Meta company, which was banned in the country for being considered an extremist organization.

The Moscow Tagansky Court had imposed back in December a fine on Meta over repeatedly failing to delete data outlawed in Russia. According to the database of the Federal Bailiff Service, the proceedings against the company began on March 24.

"The administrative violation fine, set by the court: 1,990,984,950.05 rubles," the database read.

The Tverskoy district court of Moscow ruled to ban Meta's Facebook and Instagram in Russia for "extremist activities" in March.

Moscow court receives claim to recognize Meta as extremist

A Moscow district court told Sputnik in mid-March it had received a statement from the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia calling for recognizing Meta as an extremist organization.

A court representative said a civil case on banning the tech giant was scheduled for trial in the next few days.

"A civil case on the statement of claim of the First Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia in the interests of an indefinite circle of persons against transnational holding company Meta Platforms Inc. on the ban on the activities of the organization on the grounds of carrying out extremist activities is scheduled for trial in a court session on March 21, 2022, at 11:00 [Moscow time]," the representative said.

Meta had already permitted its users a week earlier to incite violence against the Russian armed forces on its social media platforms in light of Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

Following Meta's move, Russia blocked Instagram.

This was not Meta's first app to be prohibited in the federation, as Facebook was blocked in Russia after several instances of discrimination against Russian state media.