A Russian court docket has fined Google two undecillion roubles – a two adopted by 36 zeroes – for proscribing Russian state media channels on YouTube.
In greenback phrases meaning the tech big has been instructed to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Regardless of being one of many world’s wealthiest corporations, that’s significantly greater than the $2 trillion Google is price.
The truth is, it’s far larger than the world’s whole GDP, which is estimated by the Worldwide Financial Fund to be $110 trillion.
The wonderful has reached such a gargantuan degree as a result of – as state information company Tass has highlighted – it’s quickly rising on a regular basis.
In response to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted he “can not even pronounce this quantity” however urged “Google administration to concentrate.”
The corporate has not commented publicly or responded to a BBC request for a press release.
Russia media outlet RBC experiences the wonderful on Google pertains to the restriction of content material of 17 Russian media channels on YouTube.
Whereas this began in 2020, it escalated after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years later.
That noticed most Western corporations pull out of Russia, with doing enterprise there additionally tightly restricted by sanctions.
Russian media retailers had been additionally banned in Europe – prompting retaliatory measures from Moscow.
In 2022, Google’s native subsidiary was declared bankrupt and the corporate has stopped providing its business providers in Russia, equivalent to promoting.
Nevertheless, its merchandise usually are not fully banned within the nation.
This growth is the newest escalation between Russia and the US tech big.
In Might, 2021, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor accused Google of proscribing YouTube entry to Russian media retailers, together with RT and Sputnik, and supporting “unlawful protest exercise”.
Then, in July, 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1bn rouble (£301m) for failing to limit entry to what it referred to as “prohibited” materials in regards to the warfare in Ukraine and different content material.
There may be nearly no press freedom in Russia, with impartial information retailers and freedom of expression severely curtailed.
