Moscow court fines Google $98 million for not removing illegal content
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Meta has a hearing in court later today due to the same charges. The company has also been threatened with a revenue-based fine
Google was slapped with a hefty fine on Friday by a Moscow court. This was done as the tech giant failed to delete content which is termed illegal. Google has been fined with an amount of $98 million, the court's press service said on Telegram.
According to the Interfax news agency, the fine was calculated as a percentage of Google's annual earnings.
Meta has a hearing in court later today due to the same charges. The company has also been threatened with a revenue-based fine.
This is not the first time that such a hefty fine has been imposed. Earlier, in November, a Russian court imposed a $28,085 fine on Alphabet Inc.'s Google for failing to delete illegal content. At that time, it also fined Russia's messaging service Telegram 49,440 Euros.
Earlier, Apple and Google had removed a voting app created by Putin's critic Alexei Navalny's allies during Russia's parliamentary elections. Navalny had accused the tech companies of being "liars and hypocrites" and behaving as Putin's "accomplices".
(With inputs from agencies)