Moscow, Russia: A court in Moscow has fined Google nearly $100 million, along with Facebook’s parent company Meta $27 million, for failing to delete content banned by local law.
The Tagansky District Court ruled that Google repeatedly did not remove banned content and ordered it to pay an administrative fine of some $98.4 million.
Google said it would decide on its next step after reviewing the court’s decision.
The court also fined Meta some $27.2 million for failure to remove banned content.
Russian authorities have accused social media platforms of failing to remove content related to drug abuse, weapons and explosives. Earlier this year, authorities criticized tech companies for not deleting announcements about unsanctioned protests supporting jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Russian courts previously imposed smaller fines on Google, Facebook and Twitter this year, but the latest rulings were the first time such fines was calculated based on revenue.
Russian authorities have also demanded that personal data of Russian citizens must be stored on servers in Russia, threatening the tech companies with fines or possible bans if they fail to comply.
Alexander Khinshtein, head of the committee on information policies in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said the major fine should send a clear message to all technology giants, adding that Russian law can apply other forms of punishment for failure to comply with court orders.
