Two official Russian bodies, the Central Election Commission and the telecom regulator Roskomnadzor, have called Google to stop making its resources available for what they judge to be illegal activities during elections. Thus, the electoral commission has sent a formal letter to Larry Page complaining about Alexey Navalny, an opposition leader, using YouTube to distribute information about pension-reform protests on Sept. 9, an election day.
Navalny acquires advertising tools from Google to spread information on YouTube about the Sept. 9 political protests, while staging such demonstrations on election day is illegal, says the letter to Page.
Roskomnadzor also slapped Google with an official warning, telling the company that it shouldn’t make its resources available for illegal activities during elections. Vadim Subbotin, the agency’s deputy director, said the Russian authorities will consider it “direct interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and an attempt to meddle in the country’s “legitimate democratic elections,” if Google doesn’t respond.
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