Russia is now going after Google

Russian regulators have threatened Google to slow down the company's traffic in the country if it deletes non-banned content. Russian media reported Tuesday that the company was fined $ 54,000 for the time being for failing to delete the content in question, which Russian authorities consider illegal. Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor has given Google 24 hours to remove videos it says relate to drugs, violence and extremism without giving details about them, at least for the public. The agency also accused Google of restricting access to Google-owned YouTube for Russian media, including RT and Sputnik, and of supporting "extremist organizations". We'll come back to the "extremists" in a moment. Last December, the Russian authorities passed a law giving Roskomnadzor the power to fine platforms that do not delete banned content and to control their internet traffic. Roskomnadzor said that if Google doesn't delete the problematic content, it could also slow internet speeds for users in Russia who try to access Google. The country exercised those powers back in March when it imposed a penalty brake on Twitter after Roskomnadzor said it had failed to remove around 3,000 posts. It has also threatened to completely block Twitter from the RuNet if the social network does not start cooperating with the Russian authorities. In March, Russia accused Facebook of violating citizens' rights after the social media giant blocked access to TASS news agency content. The recent pressure on Western tech giants is part of a campaign by the Russian authorities to strengthen the so-called "sovereignty" of the Internet. But what means sovereignty and security for one person is censorship for another. Last month, Google filed a lawsuit against Roskomnadzor asking for the removal of banned content. The lawsuit concerned dozens of YouTube links containing "unlawful content" encouraging minors to participate in unauthorized protests. In January, people across Russia took to the streets to support imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Its supporters have used YouTube to criticize the government and to spread its activities widely. During the rallies over Nawalny's imprisonment, Roskomnadzor warned Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and other sites that fines would be imposed if posts encouraging young people to protest were not deleted. In April, a Moscow court fined Tik-Tok after the company failed to clear content related to illegal protests. But even before the Navalny-related protests, Russia stepped up its efforts to tighten control over online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as President Vladimir Putin said the companies had become too influential. In December 2019, the Russian authorities reportedly successfully implemented and also successfully tested their so-called law on digital sovereignty, which is intended to protect the country by creating a sustainable, fenced-in national network. They had previously passed the Digital Economy National Program law, which requires Russia's Internet service providers to ensure that they can operate in the event of foreign powers trying to isolate the country online. One of the measures outlined in the law is for Russia to build its own version of the network's addressing system known as DNS. The bill would require internet service providers to make sure they can work when foreign countries attempt to isolate the RuNet, the country's national internet infrastructure. Currently, a dozen organizations oversee the root servers for DNS, and none of them are located in Russia. The government says the law will reduce Russia's reliance on Internet servers in the United States.