Russia first punishes Amazon for prohibited material: On Tuesday, a Moscow court penalized Amazon.com Inc. with 4 million roubles ($65,000) for failing to delete drug and suicide information.
Since Moscow invaded Ukraine, it has punished other foreign tech companies for not deleting information. Critics think this is part of an effort by the Kremlin to limit the influence of Western internet companies.
The Amazon fine 4 million roubles for two incidents by the Tagansky District Court. In addition, it penalized Amazon’s Twitch 8 million roubles for not deleting prohibited material.
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Interfax stated that Amazon was fined for drug trafficking and making suicide materials.
Amazon declined to comment.
Moscow punished Twitch for broadcasting “fake” interviews with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s aide, Oleksiy Arestovych.
On Tuesday, the official news agency TASS stated that one of Twitch’s two 4-million-rouble fines was for broadcasting a new Arestovych interview by a Russian lawyer deemed a “foreign agent.”
Twitch’s lawyer told TASS that the problematic videos had been removed when the cases were heard.
Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram were banned for “extremist activity,” Alphabet’s Google was punished for several alleged offenses, and its Russian business filed for bankruptcy.
Russian news outlets claimed that Roskomnadzor ordered Google to reinstate Federation Council’s YouTube account on Tuesday.
