MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Google will be fined almost $50,000 for refusing to remove information promoting non-traditional sexual relations, a source in Moscow’s magistrate court department No. 422, which received the respective protocol, told TASS on Thursday.

"The court has received a protocol under part 2 article 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (failure of the owner of a website to delete information or a web-page in case the obligation to delete such information, such a web page, is included in the legislation of the Russian Federation), the maximum punishment under this article is 4 mln rubles ($49,038)," judge Timur Vakhrameyev said.

According to him, the reason was the internet company’s refusal to remove two videos from Youtube. The first video is by blogger Karen Shahinyan about raising children in same-sex families. The other was filmed by Grani.ru (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) and tells about the lives of people from the LGBT community in St. Petersburg. These videos were discovered by Russia’s media watchdog, which demanded that Google remove them immediately, but to no avail.

The regulator also made complaints about two other YouTube videos: one by blogger Philip Marvin about train hoppers, the other - about the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine. They haven't been removed either. The court will hear the legal case against Google on May 11.

Since 2020, Google has repeatedly been brought to administrative responsibility for refusing to remove content banned on the territory of the Russian Federation. In 2021, a justice of the peace in Moscow fined Google 7.2 billion rubles ($88.2 mln) for its systematic failure to remove information prohibited in Russia. The company was found guilty under part 5 of article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (repeated failure of the owner of a website to delete information if the obligation to delete such information is included in the legislation of the Russian Federation). This decision, for the first time in the history of Russian court proceedings, imposed a turnover fine on the IT company for systematic failure to remove information.