Roskomnadzor Says To Meet With Google On Wednesday To Discuss Obedience To Russian Laws

Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor will hold a meeting with a Google representative on Wednesday in order to discuss Google's obedience to Russian laws, namely, to the law that requires search engines to remove links to prohibited resources from search results, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov told reporters on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2018) Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor will hold a meeting with a Google representative on Wednesday in order to discuss Google's obedience to Russian laws, namely, to the law that requires search engines to remove links to prohibited resources from search results, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov told reporters on Tuesday.

"Tomorrow, a meeting with a Google manager will be held at Roskomnadzor's office. He is coming to discuss this issue [obedience to law� requiring search engines to remove links to prohibited resources from search results], among other things. In its letter, Google [says] that it believes it is acting in compliance with the Russian legislation. We believe that it is not, as Google has not connected to the system via which a unified register of prohibited information is uploaded ... We will talk tomorrow," Zharov told reporters on the sidelines of the international conference, dubbed Radio in global media competitiveness, which is currently underway in Moscow.

"If we unexpectedly reach some progress in this matter, we will certainly declare this in court, so this [the upcoming talks] does not mean that the court procedure will be canceled," Zharov added.

He went on to say that Roskomnadzor was willing to discuss personal details databases localization, and the deleting of certain websites containing prohibited information from the register, among other issues, with Google.

On October 25, Roskomnadzor said in a statement that Google had not connected to the Russian Federal State Information System, which requires search engines to remove links to prohibited resources from search results. As a result, the watchdog said that the tech giant would be slapped with fines varying from 500,000 to 700,000 rubles ($7,580-$10,612).

Roskomnadzor added that it had communicated this information to Google in a letter, and that after receiving Google's reply it would file an administrative offense report with the court.

On June 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, making operators of research engines liable to fines for their failure to remove links to pages listed in the register of prohibited internet resources from the search results.