Russia Fines Google With $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00... (image @Pixabay)
Moscow, Russia: Russia issued an estimated fine of astronomical $20 decillion against Google; $20 decillion is a 2, followed by 34 zeroes. The sum exceeds far beyond any reasonable financial scale and surpasses the entire global economy several times.
The unprecedented penalty targets YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, over its decision to block Russian state-run media channels in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Reportedly, 17 Russian broadcasters joined the legal fray, filing suits against Google and demanding the reinstatement of their channels on the platform.
The penalty soared after a Russian court ruled that Google violated national broadcasting rules by barring channels from Russian state-backed media outlets on YouTube. An additional ruling demanding the restoration of these channels, with the fines doubling each day if the platform fails to comply within a nine-month period also compounded to the total fine.
The said issue can be tracked back to March 2022, when YouTube announced a global ban on several Russian state-operated channels, including RT and Sputnik. The platform justified its decision by pointing to content policies prohibiting material that denies, minimises, or trivialises violent events.
Since 2020, Google has faced ongoing penalties, starting with a daily fine of 100,000 rubles (approximately $1,028) over blocked Russian channels from Tsargrad and RIA FAN, two prominent Russian state-affiliated media outlets.
YouTube imposed such policies against channels supporting Russia’s narratives around the Ukraine conflict by removing over 1,000 channels and more than 15,000 videos globally. In Europe, bans on Russian state media accounts were imposed before it expanded worldwide. The action led to backlash from Russia, which views the move as censorship and suppression of its state-sponsored media.
Google curtailed its operation in Russia after 2022, when Moscow launched a full-scale war on Ukraine. The platform stopped short of full-on exit from the country, and services like YouTube and Google Search remain accessible within Russian borders.
At the same time, Google’s Russia subsidiary filed for bankruptcy several months into the conflict after the Russian government seized its bank accounts.
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The Kremlin called the fine a largely symbolic measure intended to compel Google to reconsider its stance on Russian broadcasters.
Speaking to Russian media, spokesperson of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that the monumental fine amount is intended to attract attention to the seriousness with which Russia views the issue of YouTube’s bans on Russian media. “I can’t even pronounce this figure right,” Peskov said.
(With inputs from agencies.)
