On Thursday, the 17th of August, Russia imposed a fine of three million roubles (approximately 30,000 euros) on Google for not removing “false news” regarding the war in Ukraine, reports Politico.
Russian state news agency TASS has reported that, on the 17th of August, a court in Moscow ruled that Google was culpable for not removing what it called “prohibited information” from YouTube, which
allegedly described how to enter protected sites and “false information” about the “special military operation in Ukraine”, even though Russian authorities had instructed them to do it.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has increased its control over online content that does not match its own version. Politico writes that on Tuesday, the 15th of August, Reddit, the social media platform, faced its first-ever fine for not removing “false content”.
Despite facing multiple fines, the company spokesperson of the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, stated that they have consistently refused to adhere to any requests for information removal.
Google has also been in a similar situation before. In the previous year, it faced a substantial fine of 21.1 billion roubles, equivalent to over 360 million euros, for once again not removing content that is alleged to be false regarding the Ukraine conflict, as reported by Politico.
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