Russia to fine Google millions for failing to delete banned content

Barcelona chosen as location for Google's new commercial offices

Barcelona chosen as location for Google's new commercial offices.

The Russian media regulator has said it will fine Google millions of rubles for failing to delete banned content.

Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor said it intends to heavily fine American tech giant Google after it repeatedly failed to remove content deemed illegal. The fine will amount to 5-20% of turnover that online giants Russian turnover.

Roskomnadzor highlighted the fact that Google had failed to pay $458,100 (32.5 million rubles) in penalties levied earlier this year. The latest fine may be as much as $240 million, which marks a significant increase from the previous penalty.

Last year, Google’s turnover in Russia totalled 85.5 billion rubles ($1.2 billion). Thus, a 5-20% fine would amount to between 4.3 and 17.1 billion rubles ($60 million-240 million).

Earlier this month, Roskomnadzor announced plans to ask a court to impose a turnover fine on social media firm Facebook, citing legislation signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2020. Facebook was accused of allowing content glamorizing drug use, child pornography, and extremism.

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Russia threatened to block YouTube and the Kremlin called for “zero tolerance” towards the video hosting giant after it removed Russian state-backed broadcaster RT’s German-language channels from its site on September 19.

The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc deleted Russian state-backed broadcaster RT’s German-language channels, saying they had breached its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

YouTube said it would block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond COVID-19 to include content that alleges vaccines cause chronic health effects or contains misinformation on the substances in vaccines.

Russia said it was considering retaliating against German media and also accused YouTube of “unprecedented information aggression” after the company’s move against the RT channels.


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Ron Howells

Ron actually started his working career as an Ophthalmic Technician- things changed when, during a band rehearsal, his amplifier blew up and he couldn’t get it fixed so he took a course at Birmingham University and ended up doing a degree course. He built up a chain of electronics stores and sold them as a franchise over 35 years ago. After five years touring the world Ron decided to move to Spain with his wife and son, a place they had visited over the years, and only bought the villa they live in because it has a guitar-shaped swimming pool!. Playing the guitar since the age of 7, he can often be seen, (and heard!) at beach bars and clubs along the length of the coast. He has always been interested in the news and constantly thrives to present his articles in an interesting and engaging way.

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