(Moscow) A Moscow court on Friday fined Google nearly C $ 130 million and Facebook’s parent company Meta $ 35 million for failing to remove content banned by local law, while Russia is seeking to step up pressure on tech giants.
The Taganski District Court ruled that Google had repeatedly neglected to remove banned content and ordered the company to pay an administrative fine of around 7.2 billion rubles (around 126 million).
Google said it would study the court documents before deciding on its next steps.
Later on Friday, the court also fined Meta nearly 2 billion rubles (35 million) for failing to remove the banned content.
Russian courts had already imposed lower fines on Google, Facebook and Twitter this year, and Friday’s rulings marked the first time the fine has been calculated based on income.
Russian state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said Google and Meta were specifically accused of violating the ban on distributing content promoting extremist ideology, insulting religious beliefs and encouraging dangerous behavior minors, among others.