LONDON : Fines imposed by Russian courts on Alphabet’s Google and YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Telegram appear to have been settled as the companies are no longer registered as borrowers in the state bailiffs’ database.
But the database, viewed by Reuters on Wednesday, still includes X (formerly Twitter) and Twitch, with fines totalling 51 million roubles ($560,730) and 23 million roubles ($252,879), respectively.
Google, Meta, TikTok and Telegram did not quickly respond to requests for comment. State bailiffs could not quickly be reached.
Russia has been at loggerheads with foreign technology companies over what it deems illegal content and a failure to store user data locally, in simmering disputes that intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Following the invasion, Twitter and Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram were banned, and Google-owned YouTube became a particular target of the Russian state’s ire.
In late 2023, a Russian court imposed a fine against Google of 4.6 billion roubles ($50.4 million), measured as a proportion of its annual turnover in Russia. Meta, which was labelled as “extremist” in 2022, has also been subjected to fines as a proportion of its Russian income.