Google fined 4 mln rubles in Russia for failing to delete fakes about special military operation - court

MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Moscow's Tagansky District Court has found Google guilty of committing the administrative offence of failing to remove previously disseminated fakes about Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

"Google LLC is ordered to pay an administrative fine of 4,000,000 rubles," Judge Marina Orlova said when reading out the court ruling.

Google has been found guilty of failing to take measures to delete information banned in Russia.

According to the court, the Russian telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor has complained about Google refusing to delete information banned in Russia. In particular, the regulator pointed to the dissemination of false information on YouTube. The information concerned Russia's special military operation in Ukraine and was aimed at discrediting Russian service members, it said.

Over the past few years, major Internet services - Google, Telegram, Facebook (information resource of an entity banned in Russia), Twitter, TikTok, Wikimedia - have been repeatedly penalized in Russia over failure to remove prohibited content. Russian courts have imposed multimillion-ruble fines on the companies. The fines have now been partly collected.