A Moscow court branded a YouTube video as “false and misleading.”

The US tech giant Google was ordered on 17 August to pay a fine of 3 million rubles – equivalent of 32,000 dollars – for its refusal to delete what a Moscow court of law described as “fabricated information” regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war.

According to a report by TASS, a the state-controlled Russian news agency, Google was found culpable for not taking down content that allegedly features "prohibited data" - purportedly providing insights into breaching certain secure installations - and disseminating "inaccurate details" about the "specialized military operation in Ukraine." 

Following its extensive military invasion into Ukraine, Russia has intensified its efforts to manage online content that contradicts its official narrative.

Earlier this week, the social media platform Reddit was ordered to pay a fine for not eliminating "misleading material." In preceding weeks, Russian courts had imposed penalties on Apple and Wikipedia for analogous reasons. Despite facing numerous fines, the Wikimedia Foundation, the entity overseeing Wikipedia, has consistently refused to adhere to demands for content takedowns.

Google is no stranger to such verdicts either. Just last year, it was handed a substantial fine of 21.1 billion rubles, equivalent to over 360 million dollars at that time, for persistently neglecting to eliminate “purportedly false content” regarding the Ukrainian conflict.

In common with numerous other Western tech enterprises, Google downsized its operations in Russia. This was attributed, in part, to Western sanctions and corresponding Russian counteractions. Moreover, pressure exerted by the Ukrainian government to erect a "digital barricade" aimed at preventing Russia from accessing services also contributed to this move.

Google's local subsidiary in Russia declared bankruptcy in 2022 due to Moscow's seizure of its bank account.

The company has paid no fines in Russia since the war started in February 2022 and most certainly it will ignore the new one too. Its not clear whether Google was represented in the Tagansky district court to defend itself.

There’s no secret to anyone that Russian magistrates act on the orders from the Kremlin.