Russia fines Google for Ukraine videos

A Russian court on Thursday slapped a sequence of small fines on Google for failing to take down contentious YouTube movies approximately the Kremlin’s army operation in Ukraine.

The Moscow court ordered the USA tech behemoth to pay a complete of eleven million rubles ($135,000) for ignoring the country media regulator’s orders to cast off posts alleging heavy Russian losses in Ukraine.

One of the movies confirmed an alleged cellphone conversation among Russian soldiers and their relatives who returned home in which the troops complained of numerous casualties of their ranks, Russian nation information agencies pronounced.

Another alleged that soldiers who were trying to move back from Ukrainian counter-offensives were being shot by retreat-blocking Russian detachments, the state media reports said.

Google’s ubiquitous video hosting service has been in Russia’s crosshairs throughout its nearly two-month campaign in Ukraine.

The tech giant infuriated Russian officials by blocking the lower house of parliament’s official media channel earlier this month.

Russia has moved swiftly to cut access to non-state media and information resources since the launch of its operation in February 24.

Russian courts have banned Facebook and Instagram, calling them “extremist” organizations, as well as Twitter.

All 3 are still available via VPN offerings, which attempt to conceal user places.

But maximum Russians get their news from state television and other government-controlled media shops, which comply with strict regulations on masking the navy marketing campaign.