MOSCOW - A Russian court has fined Google two undecillion roubles - a two followed by 36 zeroes for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube. In dollar terms that means the tech giant has been told to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Despite being one of the world’s wealthiest companies, that is considerably more than the $2 trillion Google is worth. In fact, it is far greater than the world’s total GDP, which is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to be $110 trillion. The fine has reached such a gargantuan level because as state news agency Tass has highlighted, it is rapidly increasing all the time. According to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted he “cannot 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. Russia media outlet RBC reports the fine on Google relates to the restriction of content of 17 Russian media channels on YouTube. While this started in 2020, it escalated after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years later. That saw most Western companies pull out of Russia, with doing business there also tightly restricted by sanctions. Russian media outlets were also banned in Europe -prompting retaliatory measures from Moscow. In 2022, Google’s local subsidiary was declared bankrupt and the company has stopped offering its commercial services in Russia, such as advertising. However, its products are not completely banned in the country. This development is the latest escalation between Russia and the US tech giant. In May, 2021, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor accused Google of restricting YouTube access to Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, and supporting “illegal protest activity”.
Then, in July, 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1bn rouble (£301m) for failing to restrict access to what it called “prohibited” material about the war in Ukraine and other content. There is virtually no press freedom in Russia, with independent news outlets and freedom of expression severely curtailed.