Russia Fines Google for Not Deleting Banned Content

Moscow fined Google 4 million roubles ($52,526) for not removing access to content banned in Russia, reports revealed on Monday.

Last year, Russia imposed revenue-based fines to Google and Meta Platforms for repeatedly failing to remove content Moscow deems illegal.

Google declined to comment on the reports.

The TASS news agency reported that the company had been fined for providing access to links of banned websites.

On January 6, French regulators fined Google and Facebook 210 million euros ($237 million) over their use of “cookies”.

The fine imposed on Google was a record by France’s National Commission for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL), beating a previous cookie-related fine of 100 million euros against the company in December 2020.

On the other hand, Facebook was handed a 60-million-euro fine.

“CNIL has determined that the sites facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com do not allow users to refuse the use of cookies as simply as to accept them,” the regulatory body said.

CNIL added that the two platforms have three months to adapt their practices, after which France will impose fines of 100,000 euros per day.

($1 = 76.1530 roubles)