Google has “established a constructive dialogue” with Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom and Internet regulator, to delete from search results websites that are banned in Russia, the Russian media reported, citing the Roskomnadzor press office.
While refusing to connect to Federal State Information System (FGIS), Roskomnadzor’s registry of banned sites, the US company began deleting blacklisted links from its search results a long time ago, according to various media reports.
Thus, the US search engine has now already removed from its search results about 70% of the websites censored in Russia, according to business daily Vedomosti.
The business daily reports that Google has even reached an agreement with Roskomnadzor to receive an updated list of banned websites daily before deleting some of its links to those sites following additional research.
Roskomnadzor’s registry targets sites that contain “calls to extremism,” promotion of drugs or suicide, pornographic content, unauthorized gambling and games of chance, as well as pirate content.
In December 2018, the agency fined Google for failing to connect to the FGIS. Google has paid the fine, which amounted to 500,000 rubles (around $7,500), but was still exposed to have its site blocked in Russia.
