Russia’s communications regulator on Tuesday mentioned it had drawn up two administrative circumstances towards Alphabet’s Google for failing to take away banned info from its YouTube video-sharing platform, accusing it of blatantly selling false content material.

Roskomnadzor mentioned Google might be fined as much as RUB 8 million (roughly Rs. 7,104,700), or as a lot as 20 % of the corporate’s annual income in Russia for repeat offences.

It mentioned YouTube had turn out to be one of many key platforms within the “information war” towards Russia.

Google didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark.

Russia has restricted entry to Twitter and Meta’s flagship Facebook and Instagram providers since sending troops into Ukraine on February 24, as a simmering dispute with US know-how giants has escalated right into a battle to manage info flows.

YouTube, which has blocked Russian state-funded media globally, is underneath heavy strain from Moscow, which earlier this month accused it of spreading what it referred to as threats towards Russian residents.

“The American platform openly enables the spread of false content, containing inaccurate publicly significant information about the course of the special military operation in Ukraine, discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation, as well as information of an extremist nature with calls for violence against Russian servicemen,” Roskomnadzor mentioned.

Russia final week mentioned Meta was responsible of “extremist activity”, one thing the corporate’s lawyer denied in a Moscow courtroom.

Russia launched what it calls a particular operation in Ukraine to degrade its neighbour’s navy capabilities and root out folks it referred to as harmful nationalists.

Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in response.

© Thomson Reuters 2022