Google is facing a couple of issues in different parts of the world. Today, the Russian communications regulatory agency, the Federal Agency for Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media Supervision (Roskomnadzor), announced today that it will issue a huge fine to Google before the end of the month. Roskomnadzor said that it will seek to impose a fine of 5% to 20% of its annual Russian revenue. The fine will get up to a maximum of $240 million U.S. dollars. The reason for this fine is that Google has repeatedly failed to delete content deemed illegal. This is by far the strongest punishment Russia has imposed on any foreign technology company.
Roskomnadzor had earlier fined Google for not deleting illegal content, but the fine was relatively small. Roskomnadzor said today that Google has not paid a fine of 32.5 million rubles (approximately $458,100) so far this year. In recent months, Russia has taken a series of measures to strengthen the supervision of American technology companies and restrict access to online information. For this reason, there have been punishments for companies like Apple, Google, Twitter, and Facebook.
According to Roskomnadzor, it will significantly increase the fines on American technology companies such as Google and Facebook. Roskomnadzor data shows that so far this year, Facebook has been fined 66 million rubles (approximately $900,000) by Russia, Twitter and Google have been fined 38.4 million rubles (approximately $542,000) and 26 million rubles (approximately $367,000), respectively. In addition, Google and Apple have also been fined for other violations.
Gizchina News of the week
Russia to increase fines on big non-Russian tech companies from 5% to 20%
Large technology and internet companies have been a huge topic of discussion for a long time. These companies are usually hit with huge fines for issues ranging from privacy to monopoly to illegal content. A new report shows that the Russian government is seeking to impose stronger fines on internet giants. The report claims that the Russian Internet regulators are preparing to substantially increase the amount (fines) on Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Facebook, as well as US technology companies. The Russian government is doing this as part of a push to support its own tech companies.
The Russian Federal Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media Supervision Agency (Roskomnadzor) said that companies that refuse to delete content deemed illegal content will face huge fines. The fine will be 20% of the companies annual revenue. This is a massive 15% increase from the usual 5%.
“Many companies systematically refuse to comply with Roskomnadzor’s legal requirements, and the issue of fines based on revenue ratio will soon be considered.” Roskomnadzor said the bureau is also considering other enforcement methods.
This month, South Korea imposed a fine of 207.4 billion won ($175 million) on Google for abusing Android’s dominance. For violating EU user data sharing regulations, Facebook will have to pay $216.7 million.
