MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court fined Alphabet’s Google 8 billion roubles ($77.9 million) on Tuesday for not complying with previous penalty orders, the Moscow courts press service said on Telegram.
Russia has for several years ordered foreign technology platforms to remove content it deems illegal, issuing small but persistent fines when it sees failures to comply. Tuesday’s fine marked a significant increase on fines of around 4 million roubles that are usually levied.
Google did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Chertanovo District Court in Moscow said Tuesday’s fine had been issued for Google’s failure to comply with an administrative punishment. It did not specify which administrative offence the fine was in relation to.
YouTube has drawn particular ire for hosting content Moscow objects to. The video platform used to attract around 50 million daily users in Russia, but those numbers have dropped to around 12 million, according to Google data.
Critics accuse the Russian authorities of deliberately disrupting YouTube’s download speeds to prevent Russians from viewing content there that is opposed to President Vladimir Putin and his government.
Russia denies that, saying the issues are caused by Google’s failure to upgrade equipment – a charge disputed by the company and technology experts.
Putin in December accused Google of being a tool used by the U.S. government to score political points.
($1 = 102.7000 roubles)
(This story has been corrected to add the word ‘court’ in the headline and to fix a typo in paragraph 4)
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva/Alexander Marrow; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
