Russian court sentences Google and Meta to fines of 87 million and 23 million euros

In Russia, a court on Friday, December 24, sentenced Google and Meta (Facebook’s parent company) to record fines of 87 million and 23 million euros for not removing content “Prohibited”. In a statement on its Telegram account, the press service of the Moscow courts clarified that the Californian giants had been convicted of ” recidivism “.

They were therefore sentenced, for the first time, to a fine calculated on the basis of their income in Russia. “We will study the court documents and then decide on the measures to be adopted”Google’s press service told Agence France-Presse in the middle of the day.

In the case of Google, as in that of other social networks which are the subject of various prosecutions in Russia, the authorities are highlighting problems linked to content relating to drugs, child pornography or falling within the scope of“Call to suicide”. Vladimir Putin has mentioned these themes on several occasions, making the fight against social networks a child protection issue – in March, he was angry against “The bastards who push children to commit suicide”.

But this presentation does not correspond to reality. The Russian-speaking version of the BBC has thus studied the details of all the complaints of the authorities studied by the Russian justice since the beginning of the year 2021. From this work, published on December 21, it appears that these contents represent a tiny part of the requests. It is the contents relating to Alexeï Navalny or to calls for demonstrations that dominate: in the case of YouTube, owned by Google, it is half of the cases; in that of Facebook, almost all of it.

Project of a “sovereign Internet”

In September, just before the legislative elections, Moscow had thus forced Apple and Google, accused of“Electoral interference”, to withdraw the application of Mr. Navalny from their virtual stores. Authorities had threatened to arrest employees of these companies in Russia if they did not cooperate, according to sources inside the groups. Russia has also blocked several sites linked to Mr. Navalny, whose organizations have been recognized as “Extremists” by Russian justice.

In September, Russian telecoms gendarme Roskomnadzor also announced that he had blocked six widely used virtual private network (VPN) software allowing access to the growing number of banned websites in Russia. The authorities are also developing a controversial system of“Sovereign Internet” which will eventually give the possibility of isolating the Russian Net by separating it from the large world servers. The Kremlin denies wanting to build a national network under control, as is the case in China, but this is what NGOs and opponents fear.

Russian power is finally strengthening its stranglehold on the champions of Russian digital technology. Passed under the control of a subsidiary of the gas giant Gazprom, the VK group, parent company of the first Russian social network, VKontakte, announced in mid-December the appointment as Chairman and CEO of Vladimir Kirienko, son of a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.