Russia plans to fine Google over Ukraine war videos

Russia's communications regulator may fine Google over its failure to remove certain "illegal" videos related to its Ukraine invasion on the YouTube platform.

In a post on Telegram, Roskomnadzor warned it may fine Google up to 8 million rubles (about $94,675) that will increase to 20 per cent of Google's annual revenue in case of a repeat offence.

"YouTube video hosting, owned by the American IT company Google, has become one of the key platforms participating in the information war against Russia," said the Russian regulator.

"The American platform promotes the dissemination of false content containing unreliable socially significant information about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine," it posted.

This "discredits the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as extremist information calling for violent actions against Russian military personnel," the regulator added.

According to Russian law, for failure to remove such illegal materials within the prescribed period, the site owner faces administrative liability.

"The amount of the fine can be up to 8 million rubles, and in the event of a repeated administrative offence, the amount of the fine can be increased to 20 per cent of the company's annual revenue," Roskomnadzor added.

YouTube has already acted against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Google-owned platform has demonetised the channels belonging to RT and other Russian state-backed media outlets and is barring access to videos posted by these channels.

Facebook and Instagram have taken similar actions to de-platform media outlets run by the Russian government.