Russia fines Google, Telegram, and Microsoft

In Russia, Google, Telegram and Microsoft were fined a total of 11.1 million rubles (around $130,000) for failing to remove prohibited content.

The Taganskiy District Court in the capital, Moscow, ruled on the lawsuits filed against the companies.

Concluding that the companies had failed to comply with the law by not removing prohibited content from these platforms, the court ordered Telegram and Google to pay fines of 3.8 million rubles each and Microsoft to pay 3.5 million rubles.

In Russia, fines had previously been imposed on Google, Telegram and Microsoft, as well as Apple, TikTok and other foreign internet platforms, on grounds such as failure to remove prohibited content and failure to fulfill legal obligations in the country.

The total fines imposed on Google since the end of 2021, calculated based on its revenue, have exceeded 29 billion rubles, while the company’s outstanding debt in the country is reported to be over 20 billion rubles.

Restrictions have also been imposed on Telegram’s operations in Russia, and the total fines imposed on the company by Moscow courts in the first six months of this year alone exceeded 100 million rubles.