Russia on Tuesday fined US internet giant Google for failing to ban sites ruled to be extremist from appearing in search results. Critics have accused Russian authorities of using such bans to silence opponents. Russia's communications watchdog announced that Google had been fined 500,000 rubles ($7,530) for failing to block blacklisted pages under a law that came into force in September.
"The demands of the law were explained to Google representatives," Roskomnadzor said in a statement. Watchdog chief Alexander Zharov said Google had replied that "they consider they are observing Russian law," Interfax news agency reported. Zharov insisted that "filtering is not carried out" by Google, while Russia-based search engines - Yandex, Sputnik and Mail.ru - have complied. The fine was the minimum possible under the law.
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