Russia fines Google $32,000 for hosting Ukraine videos

In a legal ruling on Thursday, a magistrate court in Russia imposed a fine of 3 million rubles, equivalent to approximately $32,000, on Google. The fine was issued due to the company’s alleged failure to remove a video containing what Russia claims to be false information regarding the war in Ukraine.

Russian state-run news agency TASS reported that apart from the dissemination of “false information,” Google was also found guilty of publishing restricted content that detailed methods of accessing protected facilities which are off-limits to minors. However, the specific nature of the facility in question was not disclosed by the Russian court.

According to TASS, the Russian court claims to have previously alerted Google to remove the videos from YouTube before imposing the fine.

Google has chosen not to provide a comment on the matter.

Since the onset of the war, Russia has been attempting to carefully regulate the narrative accessible to its citizens. Moreover, new measures have been implemented to penalize those who question or criticize Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This recent fine adds to Russia’s previous actions against other tech giants. Earlier this month, similar measures were taken against Apple and the Wikimedia Foundation, the host of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

In reality, Russia has limited means to actually collect the fine from Google, as the company’s operations in Russia have effectively ceased since the war commenced. Google has claimed to have filed for bankruptcy in Russia after its bank accounts were seized by Russian authorities.

Contributions by The Associated Press. 

Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.