Russia’s communications watchdog Roscomnadzor has asked Google LLC to stop advertising what it calls “illegal mass events” on its YouTube service.

The request comes after “multiple channels” on the platform broadcast live footage of demonstrations against the Russian government at the weekend, Reuters reported Sunday.

The demonstrations saw tens of thousands of people take to Moscow’s streets to demand free elections for the city’s legislature. Some of the YouTube channels attracted more than 50,000 viewers, Reuters said.

Roscomnadzor said it had written to Google to complain that “some entities” had paid for advertising tools on YouTube such as push notifications in order to “spread information about unsanctioned protests.” It said if Google fails to respond to its request to stop the ads, it would consider this to be “interference in its sovereign affairs” and an “obstruction of democratic elections in Russia.”

Russia reserves the right to respond accordingly in the event that Google doesn’t take any measures to prevent the protests being promoted via its websites, Roscomnadzor said. The report didn’t provide any details of the retaliatory measures Russia might impose on Google, but possible options would include hitting the company with fines, or blocking Russian Internet users from accessing YouTube.

Russia’s government has a history of putting pressure on Google, which competes against local search engine company Yandex N.V. in the country. In 2018 for example, Russia fined Google 500,000 roubles ($7.663) for failing to remove some requested entries from its search engine results.

Google did comply with another 2018 request to remove a YouTube advertisement from the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after complaining that the video violated a law on political campaigning.

Russia has introduced a number of new laws aimed at helping it better regulate the internet in recent years. In addition to requiring search engines to delete some results, messaging services such as WhatsApp are required to share encryption keys with security services, and social media networks have to store the personal information of Russian users in data centers located within the country.

Photo: Sime Simon/Flickr