Russia fines Google more than the gross domestic product of the entire world

A Russian court has fined Google two billion rubles – a two followed by 36 zeros – for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.

In dollar terms, this means the tech giant has been ordered to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Despite being one of the richest companies in the world, that’s significantly more than Google’s $2 trillion worth.

In fact, it is much larger than the world’s entire GDP, which the International Monetary Fund estimates at $110 trillion.

The fine has reached such a gigantic level because – as state news agency Tass has highlighted this – it is constantly increasing rapidly.

According to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that he “can’t even pronounce this number” but urged Google management to pay attention.

The company has not commented publicly or responded to a BBC request for a statement.

This was reported by the Russian media channel RBC the fine against Google relates to the restriction of the content of 17 Russian media channels on YouTube.

Although this started in 2020, it escalated following the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine two years later.

That caused most Western companies to withdraw from Russia doing business there is also severely limited by sanctions.

Russian media channels were also banned in Europe This led to retaliatory measures from Moscow.

In 2022, Google’s local subsidiary was declared bankrupt and the company stopped offering its commercial services in Russia, such as advertising.

However, the products are not completely banned in the country.

This development is the latest escalation between Russia and the American tech giant.

In May 2021, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor accused Google of restricting YouTube’s access to Russian media outletsincluding RT and Sputnik, and supporting “illegal protest activities.”

Then, in July 2022, Russia has fined Google 21.1 billion rubles (£301 million) for failing to restrict access to what they called ‘prohibited’ material about the war in Ukraine and other content.

There is virtually no press freedom in Russia, with independent news channels and freedom of expression severely limited.