Iran Press/ Europe: The Tagansky District Court ruled that Google repeatedly neglected to remove the banned content and ordered the company to pay an administrative fine of about 7.2 billion rubles (about $98.4 million).
"A justice of the peace from Judicial District No. 422 in Moscow's Tagansky District has found LLC Google guilty of an administrative offense and has imposed an administrative fine in the amount of 7,221,916,235 rubles and zero kopecks," the court told Interfax.
An informed source told Interfax that the judge calculated the fine sum on the basis of information about Google's annual revenue provided by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).
Google said it would study the court documents and then decide on its next steps.
Russian authorities have steadily ramped up pressure on social media platforms for failing to purge content related to drug abuse, weapons, and explosives.
Russian courts previously imposed smaller fines on Google, Facebook, and Twitter this year. The Moscow court’s Friday ruling marked the first time the size of the fine was calculated based on revenue.
Russian authorities also have demanded that foreign tech giants store the personal data of Russian citizens on servers in Russia, threatening them with fines or possible bans if they fail to comply.
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