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A Russian court on Tuesday fined Alphabet subsidiary Google 8 billion rubles ($77.9 million) for failing to comply with previous sanction orders, the Russian press service said. Moscow court on Telegram.
For several years, Russia has ordered foreign technology platforms to remove content it deems illegal, imposing small but persistent fines when it finds violations. Tuesday’s fine represents a significant increase from fines of around 4 million rubles that are usually imposed.
Google did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Moscow’s Chertanovo District Court said Tuesday’s fine was imposed on Google for failure to comply with an administrative sanction. He did not specify which administrative offense the fine related to.
YouTube has particularly attracted the wrath of Moscow for hosting content that it disapproves of. The video platform previously attracted some 50 million daily users in Russia, but that figure has fallen to around 12 million, according to Google data.
Critics accuse Russian authorities of deliberately disrupting YouTube’s download speeds to prevent Russians from viewing content there that opposes President Vladimir Putin and his government.
Russia denies this and says the problems are due to Google not updating its equipment – a charge disputed by the company and technology experts.
In December, Mr Putin accused Google of being a tool used by the US government to score political points.
(1 $ = 102,7000 roubles)
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