Russia gives Google 24 hours to delete banned content

Moscow: Russia’s communications watchdog on Monday gave Google 24 hours to delete what it called prohibited content or be fined and said Moscow could eventually slow down the company’s traffic in the country.

Russia has already placed a punitive slowdown on US social network Twitter Inc. for not deleting banned content, part of a push by Moscow to rein in Western tech giants and beef up what it calls its internet “sovereignty”.

The Russian watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said it had sent more than 26,000 calls to Google to remove illegal information, including videos containing information on drugs or violence and material from what it called extremist organisations.