Russia Fines Google For Not Removing Illegal Content, Another Form Of Cold War With US

Google has been fined for refusing to remove content deemed illegal by the Russian government. (photo; pixabay)

JAKARTA - The cold war between Russia and the United States in cyber technology is heating up. After Russia refused to hand over America's most wanted hacker, Yevgeniy Polyanin, the country of the red bear took action again.

A Moscow court fined Alphabet Inc.'s Google, 3 million rubles (Rp579 million) on Monday, November 29. Google is deemed to have disobeyed Russian law by not removing content deemed illegal. It's part of a more crucial dispute between Russia and the US tech giant.

As reported by Reuters, Russia last October also threatened to fine Google a percentage of its annual turnover in Russia for repeatedly failing to remove banned content on search engines and YouTube, in Moscow's move to rein in foreign technology companies.

Google, which last month said it had paid a fine of more than 32 million rubles, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Russia has issued several small fines to US tech companies this year. State communications regulator Roskomnadzor has been slowing Twitter's speed since last March and told Reuters it would not lift restrictions on mobile devices until all illegal content was removed.

US Big Tech is accused by Russia of setting the stage for the leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, who has openly attacked the policies of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

It was Navalny's posts and content attacking the government on social media that were the source of the trouble that led to the court fines popping up for Google.