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.

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.