Russian court fines Google nearly $ 100 million for content

Moscow: A Moscow court fined Google nearly 100 million on Friday for failing to remove content prohibited by local law. This is a penalty that reflects Russia’s efforts to increase pressure on major tech companies.

The Tagansky District Court ruled that Google repeatedly failed to remove the banned content and ordered the company to pay a fine of about 7.2 billion rubles (about 98.4 million rubles).

Russian authorities are steadily increasing pressure on social media platforms for failing to remove content related to substance abuse, weapons and explosives. Earlier this year, authorities criticized tech companies for not removing announcements about unlicensed protests in support of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Russian courts previously imposed small fines on Google, Facebook and Twitter this year. The Moscow court’s decision on Friday was the first time that the amount of the fine was calculated on the basis of income.

Russian officials have also demanded that foreign tech giants store personal data of Russian citizens on Russian servers, threatening to fine or ban them if they do not comply.

The fine will not affect Google’s business in Russia, but will send a message to other IT giants, Russian congressman Alexander Kinstein said in a statement quoted by a Russian news agency.

Khinshtein oversees Duma’s committee on information policy, information technology and communications.

This fine does not impede Google’s future work, but the law provides for other forms of response and so-called enforcement methods, such as slowing traffic or completely blocking traffic in Russia. Please do not forget. , Khinshtein said.