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Google filters content banned in Russia by over 75%, says telecom watchdog

Russia’s telecom and media watchdog is satisfied with the actions of Google to curb the spread of banned information in the Russian segment of the internet

SOCHI, February 15. /TASS/. The US-based tech giant and search engine Google filters content banned in Russia by over 75%, head of Russia’s telecom and media watchdog Alexander Zharov said at the Russian investment forum on Friday.

"I think higher," he said when commenting on experts’ estimates saying that the share of banned content filtered by Google already totals 70-75%.

Google's legal compliance

Russia’s telecom and media watchdog is satisfied with the actions of the US-based tech giant and search engine Google to curb the spread of banned information in the Russian segment of the internet, head of the regulator stated. 

"At this stage we are satisfied with the results of the dialogue with Google," he said, adding that currently the company filters the content banned in Russia by more than 75%.

Earlier, the watchdog slapped Google with a fine totaling 500,000 rubles ($7,521) for non-compliance with the Russian legislation. It noted that under the Russian law, search engine operators are obliged to exclude references to resources with illegal information from the search results. To do this, they must connect to the federal state information system containing the list of prohibited Internet resources.

The Russian investment forum is taking place in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on February 14-15. This year the forum focuses on Russia’s national projects. Roscongress is the organizer of the forum. TASS news agency acts as the forum’s general information partner and the photo host agency.