14 DAY TRIAL // Russia filed fresh accusations against Facebook, Google, Telegram, and Twitter, claiming that they failed to delete unlawful material. The Kremlin argues that by controlling and limiting the influence of social media and technology giants, it can prevent foreign interference in internal affairs, according to Republic World.
In recent months, the Russian government has taken steps to restrict social media and technological companies. The data suggests that the administration intends to increase the number of fines it imposes to protect its interests.
Russia has previously placed a punitive slowdown on Twitter in response to the US social network's unwillingness to delete banned information, as part of a broader campaign to constrain Western Internet corporations. Telegram is also facing accusations and a fine of up to 16 million rubles.
A few months ago, the organization in charge of regulating Russia's communications threatened Google with sanctions if the company did not immediately remove all of the content that had been flagged as unlawful. Google has reportedly been fined 12 million rubles ($166,210) in administrative cases in Moscow's Tagansky District Court for failing to delete material, three of which reportedly included YouTube. The sanction was related to allegedly causing Russian children to join in unapproved demonstrations in January in support of Alexei Navalny.
Russian government takes action against tech giants
In April, Peskov, a Russian presidential press secretary, warned that many Russian organizations, including the Kremlin website, had repeatedly been the targets of cyberattacks from the United States and Europe.
According to Roskomnadzor, recurrent offenses may result in a fine of up to 10% of the company's annual revenue. Roskomnadzor mentioned that it has no immediate plans to cut down the speed of Google or Facebook websites and services, similar to what it did with Twitter. However, it issued a warning that it may resort to even more drastic actions in the future if necessary.
In response to the alleged accusations, Facebook, Google, Telegram, and Twitter have so far refused to comment.