News Russia Fines Google $374M on Disagreements Over Ukraine War Coverage

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SunMaster

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Why Alphabet and Meta still operate in Russia is beyond comprehension. I recall the real word is greed.

Maybe this 'fine' will get Google to reconsider.
 
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King_V

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So, let me be sure I understand this.

Russia already seized Google Russia's bank accounts back in May.

Now, they're trying to impose further fines on Google above and beyond that?

Why is this not a case of "Stop doing this or we'll fine you" being replied to with "LOL you already seized our accounts, we'll stop whenever we feel like and we're NOT paying you!"

I mean, I'm sure it's not that simple, but still... what leverage does Russia have over Google at this point? What's to stop Google from doubling down on letting stuff in that Putin doesn't like?
 
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gg83

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Maybe this action by Russia is to be used as an example of Putin going after the Evil western companies. More for the propaganda machine. Don't get me wrong America is responsible for all sorts of bad things.
 
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husker

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SunMaster said:
Why Alphabet and Meta still operate in Russia is beyond comprehension. I recall the real word is greed.

Maybe this 'fine' will get Google to reconsider.
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The end of the article clearly states they are not making any money in Russia and the reason to continue operations there:

"We previously announced that we paused the vast majority of our commercial operations in Russia," the Google spokesperson told The Register. "People in Russia rely on our services to access quality information and we'll continue to keep free services such as Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Android and Play available."

It is one of the few sources of information inside the country that is not Russian propaganda. If you want to provide pressure on the Russian government to end the war from the inside, then this is one of the tools to do that.
 
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hotaru251

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Oct 30, 2014
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"fakes about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine"
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....... Adding fuel to the fire, the court added that some of the material promoted extremism and/or terrorism and convicted Google of an "indifferent attitude to the life and health of minors."
Click to expand...

so its a "special military operation"? maybe NATO should have a special military operation in Moscow ;o...

they just love to chickenfoot around "invasion" and "war" don't they?

also indifference to the life and health of minors is also laughable as they are purposefully targeting the sick, elderly, and children...
 
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Hooda Thunkett

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Admin said:
A Russian court has fined Google over its failure to remove forbidden content related to the Ukrainian war, marking a moment for state-backed censorship on free speech and the free flow of information.

Russia Fines Google $374M on Disagreements Over Ukraine War Coverage : Read more
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I'm more impressed that Google's search ranking is so high in Russia right now, considering that they are wrapping up their business there. That suggests to me that nearly half of Russians trust Google more than the home-grown alternative, Yandex.
I may have a spark of hope yet.
 
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PBme

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SunMaster said:
Why Alphabet and Meta still operate in Russia is beyond comprehension. I recall the real word is greed.

Maybe this 'fine' will get Google to reconsider.
Click to expand...

They don't anymore. They do operate on the web. They are unlikely to give the g
King_V said:
So, let me be sure I understand this.

Russia already seized Google Russia's bank accounts back in May.

Now, they're trying to impose further fines on Google above and beyond that?

Why is this not a case of "Stop doing this or we'll fine you" being replied to with "LOL you already seized our accounts, we'll stop whenever we feel like and we're NOT paying you!"

I mean, I'm sure it's not that simple, but still... what leverage does Russia have over Google at this point? What's to stop Google from doubling down on letting stuff in that Putin doesn't like?
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is just standard Czar Putin posturing as Google ain't likely to pay them a penny. Russia will eventually just block them but I assume they are fully ready yet for that fallout.
 
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twocows360

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samopa said:
What can happen if Google does not pay ? Enlighten me please.
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Russia will seize any holdings (including IP) and infrastructure Alphabet still has in Russia and will most likely usurp their operations there entirely, keeping the staff and assets in place but running as much of it themselves as they can (with their desired censorship practices in place). The Arm China situation, while not entirely similar, shows what happens when a hostile foreign government decides to give the middle finger to a US company.
 
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ottonis

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The most intelligent people on planet earth work at Google. Everyone trying to mess with them is going to run into some serious problems.
 
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King_V

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twocows360 said:
Russia will seize any holdings (including IP) and infrastructure Alphabet still has in Russia and will most likely usurp their operations there entirely, keeping the staff and assets in place but running as much of it themselves as they can (with their desired censorship practices in place). The Arm China situation, while not entirely similar, shows what happens when a hostile foreign government decides to give the middle finger to a US company.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that the Putin regime is going to do that even if Google does pay, so, not really a motivating factor for Google, I'd think.
 
Why_Me

Why_Me

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hotaru251 said:
so its a "special military operation"? maybe NATO should have a special military operation in Moscow ;o...

they just love to chickenfoot around "invasion" and "war" don't they?

also indifference to the life and health of minors is also laughable as they are purposefully targeting the sick, elderly, and children...
Click to expand...
NATO is the US, UK and a lot of 'nobody that has a real military'.
 
Why_Me

Why_Me

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USAFRet said:
Exercises, 7 years ago.

Lots of things are simulated in exercises.


You could jsut as easily say, in breathless scare words - "USAF uses cement "bombs" in NATO exercise!!"
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Germany's military is a on paper force only. They're about as relevant as the Canadian military which pretty much sums it up. Aside from the UK and possibly France, western Europe's military is more or less non existent and yes I did my time in the US army.
 
USAFRet

USAFRet

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Why_Me said:
Germany's military is a on paper force only. They're about as relevant as the Canadian military which pretty much sums it up. Aside from the UK and possibly France, western Europe's military is more or less non existent and yes I did my time in the US army.
Click to expand...
And I think we should leave this totally irrelevant sidebar discussion alone...;)
 
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