Russia fines Google additional 2M rubles for hosting prohibited content News
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Russia fines Google additional 2M rubles for hosting prohibited content

The Tagansky District Court of Moscow issued an additional fine of 2 million rubles ($28,085) against Google Monday for not deleting previously prohibited content. This latest fine brings the total amount imposed on Google by the court to approximately 41 million rubles.

A new Article 13.41 was added to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences by the Federal Statute in December 2020. According to this article, website owners are obligated to restrict access to illegal information and prohibited content. Any inaction or violation of the procedure would lead to an administrative fine between 800 thousand and 8 million rubles. Google has allegedly not fully complied with its obligations under the new. Russia’s communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, had issued a warning earlier this week stating that the regulator has instituted an administrative protocol against the American IT company for repeated violation of the procedure.

This fine is supposed to be a part of a larger crackdown on social media companies in Russia. In 2021, Russian courts have fined Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Google, and TikTok approximately 180 million rubles. Russia has earlier pressured the social media companies that hosted content supporting pro-Navalny protests, and it sued Twitter, Google, Facebook, TikTok, and Telegram for failing to delete posts urging children to take part in the demonstrations, drug abuse, child pornography. Google has also been fined 3 million rubles for violating Russia’s data protection laws.

For the present case, the press secretary of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow said:

By the decision of the magistrate of the judicial district No. 422 of the Tagansky district of Moscow, Google LLC was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 2 of Article 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation, he was sentenced to an administrative fine of 2 million ruble.

Telegram, a US-based messaging app, has also been fined 4 million rubbles.

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