Lawmakers Must Toughen Penalties for IT Giants Censoring Russian Media, RT Editor-in-Chief Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has urged Russian lawmakers to toughen punishment for global IT giants that censor the content posted by Russian media outlets.
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On Tuesday, Simonyan said that YouTube blocked two German RT channels without the possibility of reversing the decision. Russia's state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said that Google would face a fine of up to 1 million rubles ($13,740) if it ignores the requests to unblock the channels on YouTube, and if it refused to fulfil the requirements again, the fine will automatically be increased to 3 million rubles.
"Dear lawmakers! Could you please adopt a law that does not make Roskomnadzor impose laughable fines worth 15,000 euros [$17,500] at Google? Or at least explain why France can fine Google with 500 million euros, while we can't? Not a single patriot can comprehend this logic, believe me," Simonyan wrote on her Telegram page.
On 13 July, France's Competition Authority on Tuesday imposed on Google a penalty of 500 million euros for non-compliance with one of its rulings made last year regarding the issue of the tech giant's compensations to French publishers for the use of their content. On 1 September, Google announced that it will challenge the ruling.
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