n 2024, Russian courts imposed fines on Google LLC four times, totaling 15.1 million rubles ($172,300), according to the press service of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).
In particular, the company was fined for failing to remove extremist content, false information, materials encouraging unrest, content related to VPN services, and other illegal material on YouTube.
On February 17, Moscow court charged Google 3.8 million rubles ($41,560) for for hosting content on YouTube that included videos instructing Russian soldiers how to surrender, "extremist content and calls for mass riots",- Russia's TASS news agency reported
For several years, Russia has required foreign technology platforms to remove content it considers illegal, including what it describes as 'fake' information about the war in Ukraine. When companies fail to comply, authorities impose small but recurring fines.
Last year, Google won an injunction from London's High Court to prevent the enforcement of Russian judgments against the U.S. tech giant over the closure of various Google and YouTube accounts.
A series of civil judgments from Russia against Google were made during April 2021 and June 2023 related to termination of online services – including use of Gmail accounts and You Tube channels – in response to the imposition of international sanctions. An estimate of the accumulated total of judicial penalties exceeded £1.85 octillion, a number with 36 zeroes – a figure which, was noted at the court as “about 20 trillion times greater than the estimated GDP of all the economies in the world.”
The Kremlin said that Russia’s huge fines imposed on Google were largely symbolic and designed to spur the US tech company into lifting restrictions on Russian YouTube channels.
Read next
23:00
Google
Google on Wednesday rolled out an update for iOS that lets users search what’s on their screen with a simple gesture. The new feature, available in both the Google Chrome and Google Search apps, is similar to Android’s built-in “Circle to Search” function.
16:30
Google
London, February 19, 2025 – Google has developed an advanced AI tool designed to serve as a virtual collaborator for biomedical researchers, the tech giant announced on Wednesday.
15:00
Google
Mountain View, CA, February 19, 2025 – Google has pulled its AI assistant Gemini from the main Google app on iOS devices and is now directing users to download a dedicated Gemini app from the App Store.
15:06
Mexico vs Google
Mexico has warned of a potential lawsuit against Google over its renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" for U.S. users, a decision made in response to President Trump’s executive order.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment