A Russian court on Monday fined Google to the tune of $374 million for failing to remove forbidden content, making it accessible to Russian citizens. As covered by The Register, the content mostly relates to international coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war and marks a moment for state-backed censorship on free speech and the free flow of information. The announcement was made by the country's internet watchdog, Roskomnadzor (the equivalent to the US's Federal Communications Commission, the FCC).
The content, specifically available on YouTube but also accessible through Google searches, was deemed by the Tagansky District Court of Moscow as containing "fakes about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine" while simultaneously discrediting Russia's armed forces. Adding fuel to the fire, the court added that some of the material promoted extremism and/or terrorism and convicted Google of an "indifferent attitude to the life and health of minors."
As a result of the proceedings, Russian Google users will be notified of the company's perceived misdeeds, certainly in a bid to reduce the giant's value in the minds of Russia's citizens. And as a way to further punish Google, users won't be permitted to use Google or YouTube's ads platform to drive their businesses or content creations. It's yet another curious case of humans being caught in the crossfire.
Speaking to government officials on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly said the country would develop its own equivalents to Western products and tech firms, as the country wouldn't be reversing course on its handling of foreign companies.
"Not just restrictions but the almost-complete closure of access to foreign high-tech products is being deliberately, intentionally used against our country," said Putin, adding that “It is clear that this is a huge challenge for our country, but ... we are not going to give up and stay in a state of disarray or, as some of our ‘well-wishers’ predict, go back decades. Of course not,” he said.
Naturally, Google isn't the only search provider in Russia. In fact, one of the country's most used search engines, the domestic, Moscow-headquartered Yandex, has caught up with Google in terms of market share from February of this year - which lines up "nicely" with Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. According to Statcounter, Yandex and Google have captured around 98% of the Russian search market between them.
According to Roskomnadzor, the amount of the fine was calculated "on the basis of the company's annual Russian turnover." Of course, it also provides the added (potential) bonus of injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the country's economy, which could very well help replenish the Russian state's war chest and its embattled armies.
This isn't the first time Google has been in the sights of the Russian state. Just last month, the search provider was fined around $1.2 million on similar grounds. In April of this year, another, smaller $138,000 slap was directed at Google for alleged pro-Ukraine propaganda.
These accumulating fines happen even as Google Russia announced it was closing up shop in the country in May, following the arrest of its local bank accounts. Speaking with The Register at the time, a Google spokesperson confirmed the situation, adding that "The Russian authorities' seizure of Google Russia's bank account has made it untenable for our Russia office to function, including employing and paying Russia-based employees, paying suppliers and vendors, and meeting other financial obligations."
Staff working for Google Russia - including Russian citizens - were given a choice of moving towards a different Google subsidiary or just leaving their jobs outright, with most deciding to move to Dubai, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Yet Russian citizens were once again left high and dry, as Google Russia's closure meant that the billing and management systems responsible for keeping the Play Store operational in the country were severed, locking users out of new app acquisitions and downloads.
Despite Google Russia's closure, the company told The Register it was committed to continuing to provide free services such as email and web searches to citizens of the Russian Federation.
"We previously announced that we paused the vast majority of our commercial operations in Russia," the Google spokesperson told The Register. "People in Russia rely on our services to access quality information and we'll continue to keep free services such as Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Android and Play available."
