Google Fined More Than World’s GDP By Russia

Alphabet’s Google now owes the Russian government approximately $20 decillion (20 followed by 33 zeros) after pro-Russian media outlets were banned on YouTube a number of years ago.

The pointless fine, which is far greater than the world’s total GDP (estimated at $110 trillion by the International Monetary Fund), would have to be paid if Google ever wants to return, the Russian state media outlet Tass reported.

It comes after Moscow’s Tagansky district court fined both Google and Discord 3.5 million roubles ($37,674.92) each last month, in a symbolic act as Google (like many other tech platforms) has already exited Russia.

Pointless fine

The fine of two decillion rubles is still growing and doubles every day due to non payment of a fine, reported Tass, citing lawyer Ivan Morozov.

A decillion is reportedly a trillion times a trillion times a trillion.

“Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offences Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels,” the lawyer told Tass.

The ruling stipulates that if the fine is not paid within nine months, it doubles every day after that, and there is no limit on this number, Morozov reportedly said.

Google can return to the Russian market only if it complies with the court’s decision, but this is highly unlikely given the current relationship between Russia and most of the world, over Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine that has turned Russia into a pariah nation.

Google however is reportedly also fighting attempts by Russian broadcasters to enforce the fines in foreign jurisdictions, including Russia-friendly nations such as South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.

Symbolic act?

The Guardian reported that Kremlin has said that Russia’s huge fines imposed on Google were largely symbolic and designed to spur the US tech company into lifting restrictions on Russian YouTube channels.

The fine is because Google has not restored YouTube accounts belonging to 17 Russian TV channels including state-owned RT and Tsargrad (owned by a Russian oligarch).

In early 2022 YouTube blocked channels connected to Russian state-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik over its fake propaganda claims, amidst punishing global sanctions against Russia.

Prior to that in September 2021, YouTube had deleted the German-language channels of RT (formerly Russia Today), for breaking its policies and rules surrounding Coronavirus misinformation.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms also banned Russian state media outlets in September this year, for allegedly using deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online.

Symbolic fine

YouTube is still available in Russia despite severe throttling and outages in the summer by Russian authorities.

Russian authorities have repeatedly threatened to take YouTube offline over its bans on state-owned Russian content.

Platforms already banned in Russia include Meta/Facebook, X Corp (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

Meta’s WhatsApp had been Russia’s most popular messaging platform, but it was blocked in Russia in March 2023, alongside Snapchat, Discord, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, and Telegram.

But Moscow has little leverage left against Google, despite YouTube still hosting many Western bloggers factually covering Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, allowing Russian citizens to access independent news and online content outside of Moscow’s strict propaganda controls.

In May 2022 Russian bailiffs had seized 7.7bn roubles from Google that had been ordered as part of a fine calculated on the basis of the company’s annual turnover – which had been the first time such a fine had been levied in Russia.

The Russian unit of Google was actually declared bankrupt by a court in Moscow in October 2023 after more than a year of proceedings that stemmed from local officials’ seizure of funds from the company’s bank account in May 2022 in payment of a fine.

Other than YouTube, Google continues to provide free services such as Search, YouTube and Gmail in Russia.