According to one Russian legislator, Apple and U2 are violating Russia's ban on "gay propaganda among minors."
The legislator, Alexander Starovoitov, has taken issue with the cover of U2's latest album, Songs of Innocence, which features drummer Larry Mullen Jr. embracing the waist of his 18-year-old son Elvis, both shirtless—an image, the band explained, representing that "holding on to your own innocence is a lot harder than holding on to someone else's."
The image accompanies the digital album, which became downloadable on iTunes worldwide in September 2014. Starovoitov argues that the image violates the anti-gay propaganda law because it is viewable by minors. Billboard reports:
Alexander Starovoitov, a member of the Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of Parliament, asked the Prosecutor's Office to investigate the incident and rule whether it came as a breach of the controversial legislation adopted two years ago and widely viewed as a crackdown on the Russian gay community in general.
"Just like many citizens of the Russian Federation, I am an iPhone owner," Starovoitov said in the address to the Prosecutor's Office, quoted by the Russian daily Izvestia. "In 2014, tracks by U2 were uploaded in a viral way to my Music folder in iTunes, with the album cover featuring what I believe to be two men engaged in a manifestation of non-traditional sexual relations."
Billboard notes that this certainly isn't the first high-profile "gay propaganda" case. A promoter of Lady Gaga's 2013 show in Russia was fined under the law. In 2014, a monument to Steve Jobs and Apple was taken down at a college in St. Petersburg after Apple's CEO Tim Cook came out as gay, though that the monument was only being temporarily removed to be serviced.
Apple and U2 have not yet responded to the accusation.

