On Thursday, a Russian court fined WhatsApp 3 million rubles ($37,080) for the first time for failing to remove content banned in Russia, Reuters reported.

Although Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s company that also owns WhatsApp, was declared an “extremist” organization and banned in Russia last year, the messaging app has so far faced no punishment from Russian authorities for refusing to remove content it deems prohibited.

Other Meta services such as Facebook and Instagram, which were banned by Russia after the start of a “special forces operation” last year, have been fined in Russia for content posted by users, as have other companies such as Twitter and Google.

But Russian authorities have previously fined WhatsApp over the company’s refusal to comply with Russian laws that require Russian users’ data to be stored on servers hosted in the country led by Vladimir Putin.

The RIA Novosti news agency reported that the now received fine due to WhatsApp content was related to the refusal to remove information about Lyrica, an analgesic and antiepileptic drug, the production and distribution of which is prohibited in Russia.

Moscow has for years fined and taken other measures against big tech companies amid President Vladimir Putin’s dream of a “sovereign internet,” but they have seen a dramatic escalation since the war in Ukraine began.

The WhatsApp application is very popular in Russia, as is the Telegram messaging application, developed by the company of Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov.