Russia imposes a fine on Google that exceeds 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, that means the tech giant was asked to pay 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

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

In fact, it is far larger than the entire world's GDP, estimated by the International Monetary Fund at $110 trillion.

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

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

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

This is reported by the Russian media company RBC The fine against Google relates to restricting the content of 17 Russian media channels on YouTube.

While this began in 2020, it escalated following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years later.

This led to most Western companies withdrawing from Russia Business activities there are also severely restricted by sanctions.

Russian media was also banned in Europe – which prompted Moscow to retaliate.

In 2022, Google's local subsidiary was declared bankrupt and the company 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 companiesincluding RT and Sputnik, and supporting “illegal protest activities.”

Then, in July 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles (£301m) for failing to restrict access to so-called “banned” material about the war in Ukraine and other content.

In Russia there is practically no freedom of the press, there are independent news agencies and Freedom of expression severely limited.