Internet | Russia fines Google € 86 million – Russia’s biggest technology giant fines so far

Russian the court today imposed fines of 7.2 billion rubles, or about 86 million euros, on the technology company Google. The reason for the decision was that Google had not agreed to remove illegal material in Russia.

Major online players Google, Facebook, Twitter and Tiktok have recently received several fines in Russia for trying to influence domestic affairs and not moderating their content enough, according to the courts.

The fine Google has received so far is the largest one Russia has slapped on technology waste. Previous fines have peaked at a few tens of millions of rubles.

News agency Interfaxine according to which the amount of the fine is calculated on the basis of Google ‘s annual revenue.

Meta, a technology company formerly known as Facebook, has also been charged with similar allegations, which are due to be addressed later today.

Technology companies have also been pressured, among other things, to remove an app that provided tips for protest voting in their app stores by the time of the parliamentary elections in late summer. According to sources in the news agency AFP, the Russian administration at the time threatened Google with criminal charges and the imprisonment of its employees in Russia.

In Russia the state has tightened its grip on the online environment in recent years. The protection of young people from harmful online content and the fight against extremism are often used as criteria.

Russia, for example, has blocked access to several websites that have not agreed to the demands of the Russian authorities. Such sites include the video service Dailymotion and the networking site Linkedin.

Russia has also blocked a number of popular VPN services. A user of virtual private network (VPN) services can hide their real IP address and location information on the Internet and thus circumvent state censorship on the network.

Russia has also previously enacted a law requiring Russian applications to be pre-installed on new smartphones and computers sold in the country.