Google to block online gambling sites in Russia

Google’s spat with Russian regulators may have come to an end after Russian media reported the web giant had begun removing international online gambling sites from its search results.

International sites will now be inaccessible to Google users and any individual accessing these sites will be presented with a message clarifying the reason for the blocking.

In November, Russian regulator Roskomnadzor slapped Google with an administrative penalty of RUB700,000 (£8,239) over its failure to remove prohibited internet resources from its Russian-facing pages. It later confirmed the launch of a legal case against the firm over the issue.

Under Russian law, internet service providers are required to connect to the federal state information system, routinely monitor the Russian blacklist of blocked internet sites and remove any named sites from their results.

Domestic ISP’s including Yandex and Mail.ru had already connected to the system, but Google had not done so, prompting action from the regulator.

In December, Roskomnadzor announced it would look to develop “a completely new system of filtering and blocking [illegal] content” at a cost of more than RUB20bn (£234m) as it looks to improve its internal processes.

Despite the reported deficiencies of this system, Russian regulators blocked over 76,000 internet sites during 2017, with that number expected to continue to increase over the coming years.