russia’s communications watchdog announced on thursday that it was taking steps to punish google for breaking russian law, including a ban on promoting the platform and its information services.
google search, the google play app store, youtube, youtube music, google chat, and gmail will all be affected.
roskomnadzor accused google’s youtube video-sharing platform of becoming “one of the key platforms spreading fakes (fake images) about the course of (russia’s) special military operation on the territory of ukraine, discrediting the armed forces of the russian federation,” which has shut out russian state-funded media globally.
it said the sanctions on alphabet inc.’s google, which include a warning in search engines that it is breaking russian law, would remain in effect until the company complies with the law.
on telegram, anton gorelkin, deputy head of the state duma parliamentary committee on information policy, said that the russian search engine yandex would add a warning to google services.
according to a report in the kommersant daily quoting the industry publication adindex, google spent 243 million roubles ($3.2 million) on advertising in russia in 2021, without vat.
google did not immediately react to a request for comment after it ceased selling web advertising in russia on march 3..ch 3..
russia asked last month that google stop disseminating threats against russian residents on youtube.
in march, the regulator also shut down google’s news aggregator service, accusing it of allowing bogus information on the military operation in ukraine to circulate.
last month, russia’s lower house of parliament, the duma, passed a law that allows for up to 15 years in prison for knowingly circulating “fake” news about the military that contradicts government reports.
moscow’s long-standing difficulties with international it businesses have been exacerbated by its determination to control information about its war in ukraine.
outraged that meta platforms was allowing ukrainian social media users to post slogans like “death to the russian invaders,” moscow stopped instagram in march, after cutting off access to facebook due to what it claimed were the platform’s limitations on russian media.
on february 24, russia dispatched tens of thousands of troops to ukraine in what it described as a “special operation” aimed at degrading its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and rooting out “dangerous nationalists.”
ukraine’s soldiers have resisted, and the west has applied sweeping sanctions in an attempt to push russia’s forces to withdraw.
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