Russian court slaps Google, Meta with massive fines

By ULIANA PAVLOVA
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has fined Google nearly $100 million and Facebook’s parent company Meta $27 million over their failure to delete content banned by local law. The Tagansky District Court ruled on Friday that Google repeatedly neglected to remove the banned content, and ordered the company to pay a 7.2-billion ruble ($98.4-million) fine. Google said it would study the court documents before deciding on its next steps. Later Friday, the court also slapped a 1.9 billion ruble ($27.2 million) fine on Meta for its failure to remove banned content. Russian authorities have ramped up pressure on tech companies this year, accusing them of failing to remove calls for unsanctioned protests in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.