Moscow: A Moscow court fined Google over $100 million on Friday for failing to remove information that was prohibited by local law, a penalty that reflected Russian efforts to increase pressure on global tech companies.

The Tagansky District Court decided that Google had failed to delete the unlawful information on many occasions and sentenced the corporation to pay a 7.2 billion ruble administrative fine (about 98.4 million).

Russian authorities have increased their pressure on social media sites, accusing them of failing to remove information relating to drug misuse, firearms, and explosives. Authorities criticised tech companies earlier this year for failing to remove information regarding unofficial protests in favour of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

This year, Russian courts levied lower fines on Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The fine amount was computed for the first time on Friday by a Moscow court based on revenue.

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Russian authorities have also asked that international tech firms keep Russian individuals' data on Russian servers, threatening them with penalties or even bans if they do not comply.

According to Russian State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein, as cited by Russian news outlets, the sentence will have no impact on Google's business in Russia, but it will send a message to other tech firms,

Khinshtein is the chairman of Duma's information policy, information technology, and communications committee.

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