Russia ordered Google to remove ‘illegal’ content or face a slowdown

Google faces the ultimatum in Russia. Per Reuters, the State Roskomnadzor Internet Commission gave a 24-hour company to remove more than 26,000 examples of what was classified as illegal content. If Google does not obey the order, it can face a fine of up to 10 percent of its annual income, in addition to seeing its services slowing in the country. Agency also accused Google of Censoring Russian media outlets, including state-owned entities such as RT and Sputnik.

“This Russian media sensor and targeted support for illegal protest activities actually speaks with political coloring Google activities in Russia,” said the agency.

This is not the first time Russia threatens such action against Western technology companies. In March, the country issued Twitter because it did not eliminate the content that was prohibited quickly. Before the company filled the order, Roskomnadzor threatened to block the platform completely. At that time, the agency said it could apply similar sanctions on Facebook, Google and YouTube for many of the same reasons. It is not clear whether Google will obey orders like Twitter. Court documents seen by Reuters show that the company sued Roskomnadzor more than 12 YouTube videos agency ordered it to the delist. The clips involved Putin’s leading critic Alexei Navalny. Navalny and supporters often use YouTube to accuse President Putin corruption and ask for protests against the Kremlin. We have reached Google for comments.