Russian judges have fined Facebook and Google for refusing to delete messages or images that Russia believes are illegal.
Google was fined three million rubles in total. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Facebook has to pay 26 million rubles.
The offending posts allegedly prompted young people to join protests against the imprisonment of Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the beginning of this year. According to the Russian authorities, the content of those messages was illegal.
Russia also threatened to punish Google and Facebook in other ways if they don’t heed the call to delete specific messages. The Russian communications authority could slow down the functioning of their apps and sites. Previously, Twitter was slower in Russia as a punishment for leaving messages deemed illegal.
In the first months of this year, many Russians took to the streets to demand the release of Navalny. Since the beginning of this year, he has been detained for 2.5 years because of a fraud case that he says is politically motivated.
He was taken to a prison camp after violating the terms of his parole while staying in Germany. There, the opposition leader was treated for months for poisoning that he attributed to the Kremlin.
