Russian justice imposes million-dollar fines on Google and Facebook’s parent company

Russia imposed large fines on the US companies Google and Meta (Facebook’s parent company) on Friday, of US $ 98 million and US $ 27 million respectively, for failing to remove “prohibited” content, another sign of the increasing pressure on this country on the digital giants.

In a statement on its Telegram account, the press service of the Moscow courts specified that the Californian giants were found guilty of “recidivism”Since they did not remove content deemed illegal in Russia from their platforms.

The court did not detail what content was involved.

For its part, the Russian telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, indicated that, in this context, prohibited content fuels the “religious hatred“, Provide information”Not very reliable“Or dangerous for minors, or supports”terrorist or extremist organizations”.

“We will study the court documents to decide the measures to adopt“Said the press service of Google, without adding anything else.

Russia routinely sanctions large digital companies accused of not deleting content that advocate for drugs, suicide and related to the political opposition.

However, the fines that were ordered against Google and Meta are so high that they are unprecedented.

According to Roskomnadzor, the social networks Facebook and Instagram (also owned by Meta) still have more than 2,000 prohibited content in Russia. For Google, there are more than 2,600.

The regulator had already warned in October that it was going to sanction Meta with a fine of “between 5% and 10% of its annual turnover” of its subsidiaries in Russia, which means many millions.

Fines, threats and blockades

In September, shortly before the legislative elections, Moscow forced Apple and Google to withdraw from their virtual stores in Russia the application of the opponent Alexei Navalni, who is in prison, for “electoral interference ”.

And they threatened to arrest their workers in Russia if they did not cooperate, according to sources inside these companies.

They also blocked several websites linked to Navalni, as their organizations were condemned for “extremists”For the Russian justice.

Precisely, Leonid Volkov, a Navalni supporter, believes that Google will soon be faced with a difficult alternative: not pay the fine and abandon the Russian market, or remove all its content “illegal”, Especially the videos of the opposition leader, widely viewed on YouTube (owned by Google).

“The market is too big, and Google does not want to lose it, but a fine of this amount makes it less attractive”Volkov wrote this Friday on the Telegram network.

In September, Roskomnadzor announced the blocking of six virtual private networks (VPN) software, which allow access to pages prohibited in Russia.

Since 2014, Russian law obliges internet companies to store the data of Russian users in the country. This law made Facebook, Google, Telegram and WhatsApp have to pay thousands of dollars in fines.

The Russian authorities are developing a controversial “sovereign internet” system that will isolate the Russian network from the big world servers.

In January, President Vladimir Putin called the big internet companies “de facto, competence of the States ” and denounced his “Attempts to brutally control society.”

NGOs and opponents fear that the Kremlin will seek to create a national network under its control, as is the case in China, something the government denies.

They are also increasing their presence in large Russian digital companies.

The VK technology group, controlled by a subsidiary of the energy giant Gazprom (and which created the first Russian social network “VKontakte”), announced in mid-December the appointment as CEO of Vladimir Kirienko, the son of a close collaborator. Putin.