A Russian court has fined Google an astonishing two undecillion roubles – a number with 34 zeros. In dollars, this comes out to $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. This massive penalty was imposed because Google restricted 17 Russian state media channels on YouTube.
To put it in perspective, the fine is far greater than Google’s $2 trillion value and even more than the world’s total GDP, estimated at $110 trillion by the International Monetary Fund.
The fine keeps growing quickly, as reported by the state news agency Tass. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted, “I cannot even pronounce this number,” but called on Google to pay attention to it.
Also read: LinkedIn Fined €310 Million by EU for Data Privacy Violations
The issue began in 2020 but worsened after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. This led most Western companies to leave Russia due to sanctions. Google declared its local branch bankrupt in 2022 but has kept some services in the country.
This latest action is part of Russia’s ongoing effort to control online content in a country where press freedom is severely limited.
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