WTF?! Russia seems to take pleasure in handing out fines to Western tech companies, but the latest one seems a little excessive. According to reports, a court in the country has hit Google with a fine of two undecillion rubles over YouTube blocking access to Russian channels. That about $20.5 decillion, quite a lot more than the estimated global GDP of $100 trillion.
YouTube was banning Russian channels even before Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine. In 2020, the service banned the Tsargrad TV channel and RIA FAN due to what Google said were violations of sanctions legislation and trade rules.
YouTube banned more of the nation’s channels in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, including RT, Sputnik, NTV, and more.
According to Russian language site RBC, 17 channels are suing Google over the bans. Russian courts previously ordered Google to restore the channels. If the company failed to do this within nine months, it would be fined 100,000 rubles ($1,025) for each day of non-compliance. The amount doubles every week until Google complies, with no limit on the total fine.
Thanks to compound interest, Google now owes two undecillion rubles. A decillion is a 1 followed by 36 zeros. It’s the US equivalent of about 20.5 decillion dollars, with a decillion being a 1 followed by 33 zeros.
The judge in the case mentioned he was dealing with a case in which there are “many, many zeros,” which is quite the understatement.
Seeing as Google parent Alphabet made $174 billion in gross profit in 2023, it appears Russia is trying to bankrupt the US giant. The report states that Russian media have appealed to courts in Turkey, Hungary, Spain, South Africa, and other countries to recognize and enforce court decisions made against Google in Russia.
In July 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1 billion roubles (~$373 million) over YouTube failing to remove videos that, among other things, allegedly promoted “extremism and terrorism.” It said the video platform had not deleted “fakes” about the “special military operation” in Ukraine, thereby discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Also read: Russia skirts sanctions, acquires Nvidia and AMD chips through Dell servers from India
Even before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia and Google regularly clashed over issues ranging from where the company stored its data to not removing certain websites from search results.
Google doesn’t seem too worried about the situation and having to pay more than the world’s GDP. In its latest earnings statement, Alphabet said it had ongoing legal matters relating to Russia, but does not believe they will have a material adverse effect.
Masthead: Alexander Mils
