A Moscow court has fined Google and Facebook for systematically failing to remove banned information in the country.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency International Group, a judge at the Moscow Peace Tribunal has fined Google 7.2 billion rubles ($ 98.4 million) for its systematic failure to remove banned information in Russia.
According to the Tass news agency, Russian media watchdogs had previously told the Tass news agency that since the beginning of this year, sixteen protocols have been prepared against Google due to a systematic failure to remove banned information in Russia. In such cases, the court will impose a fine based on 1.1 to 1.2 of the company’s annual revenue. A Moscow court has imposed a similar fine on Facebook.
According to Google, the turnover of the company’s representative office in Russia was 85 billion rubles ($ 1.2 billion).
Russia fined Google 3 million rubles ($ 41,107) for violating privacy laws a few months ago.
Russia has repeatedly fined large technology companies for crimes such as refusing to remove banned content and trying to persuade them to open an office in Russia.
Read more: Google pays fines to Russia over banned content: https://www.paksahafat.com/en/?p=14111
Russia’s Federal Communications, Information, Technology and Public Media Authority warned last month that Google could be fined 6 million rubles for failing to store personal data of Russian users on Russian soil.
In June of this year, a Russian court fined Google 4 million rubles ($ 5,540) for refusing to remove banned content. A spokesman for Russia’s Communications, Information, Technology and Public Media Authority told Itar-Tass on June 25 that Google had refused to remove any banned content in Russia and would not remove 20 to 30 percent of its links.