Russian watchdog threatens to slow Google’s speed in Russia
Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor is threatening to reduce the internet speed of Google’s services in Russia if the search giant neglects to remove links to illegal content. Google was already fined about $ 80,000 today.
According to the telecom watchdog, Google has violated the legal obligation that it must remove links to illegal content from Russian search results. That writes news agency Reuters. Google was given 24 hours yesterday to remove the corresponding links to the videos, otherwise the company would have to pay fines. The fines were imposed by a Russian court after the deadline expired today. The telecom watchdog also threatened to lower the internet speed to Google’s services if Google didn’t remove the links.
In addition, if Google goes wrong again, according to Roskomnadzor, the company risks receiving a fine equal to 10 percent of its annual turnover. According to the Russian telecom watchdog, 12 YouTube videos contained content that could, among other things, encourage drug use and encourage young people to participate in protests against the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny in January. Links to these videos had to be taken offline.
At the time of writing, Google has not responded, but according to Reuters, Google has appealed the court’s decision to issue fines.