The pro-Russian authorities in the occupied Eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk accused the tech company of persecuting Russians and blocked it from doing business there.
A woman is using a search engine.
Denis Pushilin, leader of the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic wrote on Telegram on Friday that he would ban Google from the region because the company promoted terrorism and violence against all Russians.
Pushilin said that the tech company was pursuing a criminal policy and was promoting the persecution of Russians.
The social networking sites were blocked in Luhansk, which has been under control of Russia-backed rebels for eight years.
Forbes asked for comment from the company, but they did not reply.
Since the beginning of the war, the Kremlin has cracked down on a number of U.S. technology companies. In March, Russia opened a criminal investigation against Meta, banning the company and labeling it an Extremist organization, after it was reported that Facebook had temporarily suspended its hate speech rules against Russia. The ban was upheld by a court in Russia. Russia fined Google $374 million this week, largely for refusing to take down content that disputes the Kremlin's narrative of the war in Ukraine on YouTube. Russia passed a law in March that makes it a crime to speak out against the country's actions in Ukraine.
According to some reports, Russians have been trying to get information from different sources since the war began. Demand for Virtual Private Networks that allow users to obscure their location to access websites that are not allowed in Russia rose by more than 2,000% on the day before the ban was imposed.
The latest anti-Silicon Valley moves come from Russia.
There will be a ban on the search engine in the occupied areas of Ukraine.
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