Google, Meta and Tiktok's debts removed from the database of Russian state bailiffs

Fines imposed by Russian courts on Google and Alphabet's YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Telegram appear to have been settled now that the companies are no longer registered as debtors in the state bailiffs' database.

But the database, accessed by Reuters on Wednesday, still includes X (formerly Twitter) and Twitch, with fines totaling 51 million rubles ($560,730) and 23 million rubles ($252,879) respectively.

Google, Meta, TikTok and Telegram did not immediately respond to requests for comment. State bailiffs could not immediately be reached.

Russia is at odds with foreign tech companies over what it considers unlawful content and its inability to store user data locally. This has led to simmering disputes that intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

After the invasion, Facebook and Instagram were blocked from Twitter and Meta Platforms, and Google-owned YouTube became a particular target of the Russian state's ire.

In late 2023, a Russian court fined Google 4.6 billion rubles ($50.4 million), calculated as a percentage of annual revenue in Russia. Meta, which was labeled “extremist” in 2022, has also been fined as a percentage of its Russian revenue.

First print: January 4, 2024 | 12:37 pm IST