Google has been fined greater than €360 million by a Russian court docket for failing to take away content material associated to the Ukraine struggle.
Russia’s state media watchdog Roskomnadzor stated that the video-sharing platform YouTube had repeatedly not eliminated “prohibited” movies.
This included content material containing so-called “faux information” concerning the struggle in Ukraine that discredited the Russian navy. YouTube was additionally accused of failing to take away movies that promoted “extremism” and known as on youths to participate in “unauthorised mass actions”.
On Monday, the district court docket in Moscow fined Google round 21.1 billion rubles (€361 million).
Based on state media, it’s the largest wonderful ever imposed on a Large Tech firm by a Russian authority.
“Google and its info sources are recurrently held administratively chargeable for violations of Russian regulation concerning the failure to take away prohibited info,” the watchdog stated in a assertion.
The wonderful for the repeated offence was calculated based mostly on Google’s “annual turnover,” it added.
Lately, Russian authorities have stepped up their crackdown in opposition to main Western social media platforms.
Like different Large Tech firms, Google ceased operations in Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
However not like Twitter, Fb, and Instagram, most of its platforms haven’t been blocked by the Kremlin.
Google has not but responded to the court docket’s verdict and might enchantment the wonderful.
