Google was fined two undecillion roubles (two plus thirty-six zeroes) by a Russian court for limiting access to Russian state media stations on YouTube.
The tech giant has been ordered to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in dollars.
That is far more than the $2 trillion Google is worth, even though it is one of the richest corporations in the world.
In actuality, it is significantly more than the global GDP, which the International Monetary Fund estimates to be $110 trillion.
As state news outlet Tass has pointed out, the fee is always rising, which is why it has reached such an enormous amount.
Tass claims that Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, acknowledged that he “cannot even pronounce this number” but asked “Google management to pay attention.”
The business has not made any public remarks or answered a request for comment from the BBC.
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According to the Russian media outlet RBC, Google’s penalties is related to the YouTube content restrictions placed on 17 Russian media channels.
Although this began in 2020, it intensified two years later with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As a result, the majority of Western businesses left Russia, and conducting business there is now severely constrained due to sanctions.
Additionally, European countries blocked Russian media outlets, which prompted Moscow to take punitive action.
Google ceased providing its commercial services, including advertising, in Russia when its local unit was deemed insolvent in 2022.
Its goods aren’t entirely prohibited in the nation, though.
This is the most recent escalation between the US tech behemoth and Russia.
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor accused Google in May 2021 of promoting “illegal protest activity” and limiting YouTube access to Russian media sites, such as RT and Sputnik.
Then, in July 2022, Russia penalised Google 21.1 billion rubles (£301 million) for not limiting access to “prohibited” materials, including the war in Ukraine.
In Russia, freedom of expression and independent news outlets are highly restricted, and press freedom is essentially nonexistent.
SOURCE: BBC
