Russia prosecutes Google over not removing banned content
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Russia is drawing up administrative cases against Google for not complying with Moscow's ban of certain content from YouTube.
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Google's Doodle on Russia's National Day in 2020
Moscow is prosecuting Google over the tech giant failing to remove banned information from YouTube.
The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media chalked up on Tuesday two administrative cases against Google, saying it blatantly promoted false content in light of a massive Western campaign of Russophobia.
Roskomnadzor, Russia's communications regulator, said Google could be facing a fine of 8 million rubles, 20% of Alphabet Inc firm's annual revenue in the federation, for repeat offenses.
Moscow stressed that YouTube had become a pivotal platform in the information war against Russia, which is seeing the West spreading disinformation to try and discredit and demonize Russia.
Meta had said in a statement it had decided to allow the publication of calls for violence against Russian soldiers, prompting Moscow to ban its platforms nationwide in light of growing Russophobia.
Read: Russian Embassy: Meta must be held accountable for allowing calls for violence
Amidst the wave of anti-Russian narrative spewing from the West, YouTube blocked Russian news outlets, such as RT and Sputnik, globally, and later, Moscow accused it of spreading threats against Russian citizens.
"The American platform openly enables the spread of false content, containing inaccurate publicly significant information about the course of the special military operation in Ukraine, discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation, as well as information of an extremist nature with calls for violence against Russian servicemen," Roskomnadzor said.
The technological boycott of Russia is over its special military operation in Ukraine, launched due to NATO's eastward expansion, Kiev's shelling of Donbass, and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.
The US and its subsequently rolled out comprehensive sanctions, including restrictions on the Russian central bank, export control measures, SWIFT cutoff for select banks, and closure of airspace to all Russian flights. Many of their companies have suspended their Russian operations.
