Russia penalised Alphabet’s Google and TikTok on Wednesday for failing to comply with an order from communications regulator Roskomnadzor about forbidden content, according to the Moscow courts’ press service.
TikTok was fined 4 million roubles and Google 5 million roubles (about $58,038) by the court for their inability to locate and remove information that had previously been marked as forbidden.
This most recent measure demonstrates Russia’s persistent insistence that foreign digital platforms remove any content that it considers to be unlawful.
Compliance has frequently been a problem, leading to many fines, despite multiple instructions and penalties.
Requests for comments were not immediately answered by Google or TikTok.
But for many years now, Russia has imposed minor but consistent fines on international technology companies for failing to delete content that it deems illegal.
According to Reuters, Google has come under fire from Moscow in particular for eliminating YouTube channels linked to well-known Russian media personalities and public officials.
These moves have made tensions between the tech giant and the Russian government worse.
This development is indicative of the ongoing and intensifying conflict over the regulation of digital information, with Russia adamant about upholding its laws and IT corporations caught in the crossfire of divergent international norms and expectations.
Similarly, Italy’s antitrust commission has begun an inquiry into the online search giant Google and its parent company Alphabet for alleged unfair economic practices concerning user data.
We earlier reported that The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance alleging potential abuses of children’s privacy with the Department of Justice (DOJ).
