Roskomnadzor on October 27 drew up an administrative protocol against the American IT company Google LLC for repeated violation of the procedure for restricting access to materials containing prohibited information (part 5 of article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). Such an offense is punishable by a fine ranging from 5% to 10% of the Internet company’s annual turnover.
“The protocol will be submitted to court to bring the company to justice”, – noted at Roskomnadzor.
Google’s revenue in Russia reaches 220 billion rubles, according to the Safe Internet League. Thus, the fine could be up to 22 billion rubles. At the same time, the source of Vedomosti, close to one of the Russian departments, evaluates Google’s revenue in Russia in 144 billion rubles.
The Russian regulator claims that the video hosting YouTube, owned by Google, has not yet removed “over 2.4 thousand illegal materials dangerous for Russian citizens.” In particular, they contain “propaganda of the views and ideology of extremist and terrorist organizations, incitement to religious hatred, signs of the heroization of terrorists.”
Other prohibited materials include “propaganda of an indifferent attitude towards the life and health of minors (picking, roofing)”, denial of the danger of COVID-19, as well as false information about natural and man-made disasters.
Finally, “calls for the participation of minors in unauthorized mass actions” are classified as prohibited information.
Since the beginning of 2021, 16 protocols on administrative violations under Art. 13.41 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. The company was fined 32.5 million rubles.