The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has provoked a series of retaliations from different companies in the West, including Google. The tech giant, after refusing to erase content that Vladimir Putin's government deems illegal and restrict government content on YouTube, intends to declare bankruptcy after authorities confiscate its accounts.
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What does Google not want you to search for?
How does confiscation of accounts impact the company in the country?
According to the news released, already in April this year, the Russian authorities seized more than 1 billion rubles (R$ 76 million) from the American company in the country. However, until then, it had not been confirmed by the leaders that his entire bank account had been seized.
As a result, by restricting Google's bank accounts in Russia, the company is unable to pay its employees and collaborators. As a result, according to a spokesperson for big tech, operations in the region have become unsustainable.
Furthermore, since Moscow began sending thousands of troops into Ukrainian territory in February of this year, Google had already laid off many of its employees, even though some remained in the country. Fortunately, some free services like the search engine and YouTube will remain free for their users.
the bankruptcy filing
According to Google, the confiscation of accounts was not yet the main reason for filing for bankruptcy. Including, the company has been fined and restricted by the Russian government for a long time. In December last year, they received a fee of 7.2 billion rubles (R$ 550 million) for also not deleting content that was considered illegal. Then, according to official court data, another 506 million rubles (R$ 38.3 million) were added.
In general, this information that they want to restrict is related to publications and data that contradict Russian authorities or support Ukraine. Over the past few weeks, tensions between big tech and the government of Vladimir Putin have been escalating.