Google's Staggering Fine of $20 Decillion and Counting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The staggering fine of two undecillion rubles (or $20 decillion) that Google now owe to Russian broadcasters who were banned from YouTube is emblematic of the West's hankering to subdue Russia. The punitive action is intended to push the company to rectify the issues they have with the country, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted. 

 

The eye-watering sum is supposed to make the company “pay attention” to the problem and fix it, he suggested on Thursday. 

 

“This is a specifically formulated sum, I actually can’t even pronounce this figure, but it is rather filled with symbolism”, Peskov said, explaining that Google “should not limit the actions of our broadcasters on a whim”. 

 

The colossal figure was first reported by RBK news outlet on October 29, 2024 and stems from a series of lawsuits filed against Google by seventeen Russian broadcasters which accused the tech giant of unlawfully blocking content and taking down their YouTube channels.

 

This unprecedented penalty of $20 billion trillion trillion or if we wish to type it out in full, this astronomical figure is as is shown here: $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. It's a sum which is higher than all the money in the world combined!

FYI, at $110 trillion, according to International Monetary Fund figures, world gross domestic product looks modest in comparison. Google parent Alphabet, meanwhile, have a market value of around $2 trillion.

 

Back in October 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google to restore YouTube access to the blocked Russian channels, placing a compounding penalty of 100,000 rubles ($1,028) per day for non-compliance on the tech company. The penalty doubles every week, according to the court’s ruling. With no cap imposed on the fine, it has more than reached the $20.6 decillion mark and is set to grow even further. 

 

The dispute between Google and Russian broadcasters dates back to 2020, when the company took down the YouTube channels of Tsargrad TV and RIA news agency, citing US sanctions against their owners. Things got worse for Russian outlets after the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated in February 2022, with dozens of other news channels blocked on the platform, including those of RT and Sputnik. A number of broadcasters subsequently sued the tech giant, winning the case in the Moscow Arbitration Court.