Editor’s note: The original December 2021 version of this article was lost. The Lee Daily Register rebuilt it in October 2026 from the sources cited below, and added what happened afterward. The original version said Meta and Google had both been fined 17 million roubles. That was not accurate: the 17 million roubles were fines imposed on Facebook alone, which it had paid. Google was not part of that payment.
Facebook has paid 17 million roubles, about $229,643, in fines Russia imposed for failing to delete content that Moscow considers illegal, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday, Dec. 19.
Russia had sent state bailiffs in October to collect the money. As of Sunday, the federal bailiff service’s database showed no remaining enforcement proceedings against the company, Interfax said, according to Reuters. Interfax also reported that the messaging app Telegram had paid 15 million roubles in fines. Neither company immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.
A bigger penalty on the calendar
The payment does not end Facebook’s legal trouble in Russia. Its parent company, Meta, and Alphabet’s Google are due in court next week over suspected repeated violations of Russia’s content laws. This time the potential fines are not fixed sums. They can be calculated as a percentage of each company’s annual revenue in Russia, Reuters reported.
Moscow has stepped up pressure on large technology companies this year. Critics say the campaign is part of a wider effort by Russian authorities to tighten control over the internet, at the expense of individual and corporate freedom.
Russian officials have accused the platforms of failing to take down posts calling for unsanctioned protests in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, The Associated Press reported.
What happened next
On Dec. 24, 2021, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court ruled that Google had repeatedly failed to remove banned content and fined it 7.2 billion rubles, or about $98.4 million. Later the same day, the court fined Meta 1.9 billion rubles, about $27.2 million, for the same kind of violation, the AP reported. Google said it would study the court documents before deciding its next steps.
On Feb. 28, 2022, the Tagansky court rejected Google’s appeal, and its revenue-based fine took effect. A similar ruling against Meta, for nearly 2 billion rubles, had already entered into force, Interfax reported.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the dispute with Meta escalated sharply. Facebook and Instagram were already blocked in Russia when, on March 21, 2022, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court declared Meta an extremist organization and banned both platforms for what it called extremist activities. The ruling also barred Meta from opening offices or doing business in Russia. WhatsApp, which prosecutors did not ask the court to ban, was left alone, and authorities said they did not plan to punish individual users, the AP reported via PBS NewsHour.
