Putin VS YouTube? Google warned not to place mass protests online

Roughly 60,000 protesters gathered in Moscow to demand fair elections, BBC reported on Saturday. Russia's state communications watchdog Roscomnadzor said it asked Google to stop advertising 'illegal mass events' on its YouTube video platform. Russia would consider it interference in its sovereign affairs should Google not respond, Reuters reported. The protesters took to the streets of the Russian capital in the largest political protests in eight years, defying a crackdown. The protests erupted when the news came that opposition candidates were banned from running in the upcoming Moscow city elections set to take place in September. Other cities in Russia also held protests in solidarity with the capital. Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher laws requiring search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services, and social networks to store Russian users' personal data on servers within the country. A Google spokesperson in Russia declined to comment on Sunday. Moscow has a track record of putting regulatory pressure on Google, one of the main rivals of Russian internet search company Yandex. In late 2018, Russia fined Google 500,000 roubles ($7,663) for failing to comply with a legal requirement to remove certain entries from its search results. Earlier that year, Google removed a YouTube advert by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after authorities complained that the videos violated a law prohibiting campaigning ahead of a vote for regional governors. ($1 = 65.2455 roubles) Reuters contributed to this story.

Putin VS YouTube? Google warned not to place mass protests online

Russian watchdog Roscomnadzor said Russia would consider it interference in its sovereign affairs should Google not respond.

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Putin VS YouTube? Google warned not to place mass protests online

Russian watchdog Roscomnadzor said Russia would consider it interference in its sovereign affairs should Google not respond.

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