Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Vladimir Putin's government seems to be starting to soften towards the United States (US) technology giant. A Reuters report shows that the fines handed down by a Russian court to Alphabet (Google, YouTube) and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) have been waived.
This fine was also previously applied to TikTok and Telegram. However, currently all these companies are no longer listed as debtors in Russian government documents.
Even so, there are still several companies that are still considered to be in debt. These include X (formerly Twitter) and Twitch. The fines are 51 million rubles (Rp. 8.7 billion) and 23 million rubles (Rp. 3.8 billion), respectively.
Google, Meta, TikTok and Telegram did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Russian bailiffs also did not provide confirmation.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin's government has been at odds with tech giants. This is because digital platforms are considered to be spreading content that violates the law.
Apart from that, Russia also accused platform providers of failing to store user data locally in their country.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, X and Facebook have been completely blocked. Meanwhile, YouTube has become a target for the Russian government.
At the end of 2023, a Russian court fined Google 4.6 billion rubles, which was calculated based on the proportion of the search engine giant's annual turnover in Russia. Meta which is claimed to be an extremist in 2022 will also be subject to a fine in proportion to its turnover in Russia. However, both of them are now debt free.
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