Russia fines Google $2.5 decillion, more money than exists on Earth, for banning Russian channels on YouTube
It seems like a scene straight out of the movie Austin Powers, where Dr. Evil demands $100 billion in exchange for a nuclear weapon, only for leaders of the United Nations to remind him that "that kind of money doesn't even exist in the whole world." Russia has gone ahead and fined the US tech giant Google a whopping 2 undecillion Russian rubles ($2.5 decillion).
A undecillion fine on Google
An undecillion is a number equal to 1 followed by 36 zeros.
Google was fined 20,565,635,200,000,003,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Russian rubles by a Russian court for refusing to restore the accounts of pro-Kremlin and state-run media outlets on YouTube.
More than the world's GDP
While Google is no stranger to being fined by courts and governments worldwide, the penalty imposed by Russia takes the cake. This is because it is not only higher than Google's revenue but also more than the money in circulation in the entire world. For context, the World Bank estimates global GDP to be around $100 trillion.
YouTube's ban on Russian TV channels?
The ludicrous amount of the fine was imposed on Google after a total of 17 Russian media outlets were banned from YouTube starting in 2020.
The first such channel to be banned by YouTube was Tsargrad in 2020. This was followed by more pro-Russia outlets after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
A Russian court had ordered Google to restore the channels and imposed a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week.
Google Russia is already bankrupt
It is unclear how Russia will make Google pay the fines, as its Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2022 and was officially declared bankrupt last year.
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