Russia opens case against Google, saying it failed to delete banned content

Russia has opened a case against US tech giant Google for failing to remove banned content from its search engine, communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Monday.

Roskomnadzor said Google was not removing up to 30% of what it called “dangerous content”, some of which it said was extremist, pornographic and suicidal in nature. It opened “administrative proceedings” that could lead to a court case and a fine of up to 5 million roubles ($65,670).

Google in Russia declined to comment.

A Russian court previously fined Google 1.5 million roubles, in August, after finding it guilty of failing to block content banned in Russia, while other global tech companies have faced challenges in the country.

Last week lawmakers presented draft legislation that could allow the government to restrict internet access to US social media platforms deemed to have discriminated against Russian media outlets.

Microsoft’s LinkedIn is blocked in Russia after a court found it breached a data-storage rule, passed in 2015, which required all data about Russian citizens to be stored within the country.