Google was fined a series of modest fines by a Russian court on Thursday for failing to remove problematic YouTube videos about the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine. The US internet behemoth was fined by a Moscow court to pay a total of 11 million rubles ($135,000) for disregarding demands from the state media regulator to erase posters citing massive Russian losses in Ukraine.
According to Russian official news outlets, one of the tapes depicted an alleged phone conversation between Russian servicemen and their families back home in which the troops lamented about several losses in their ranks. Another claim was that soldiers attempting to withdraw from Ukrainian counter-offensives were being shot by retreat-blocking Russian detachments, according to official media sources.
Throughout Russia’s almost two-month assault in Ukraine, Google’s omnipresent video hosting service has been in the sights. Earlier this month, the tech giant enraged Russian officials by shutting the lower chamber of parliament’s official media channel. Since the start of its operation on February 24, Russia has moved quickly to restrict access to non-state media and information resources.
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have all been banned by Russian courts for being ‘extremist’ organizations. All three may still be accessed using VPN services, which attempt to conceal user locations. The majority of Russians, however, obtain their news from state television and other government-controlled media channels, which adhere to stringent coverage guidelines for the military effort.
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