GOOGLE has been slapped with an astronomical fine of $204.8 octillion – more than all the money the world has ever made – over a YouTube fallout.
The tech giant has reportedly spent years refusing to restore the accounts of Russian pro-Kremlin and state-run media outlets.
The unbelievable amount was calculated after a four-year court case that began after YouTube banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 as well as RIA FAN.
According to sources at RBC news, Google began accumulating daily penalties of around a whopping 100,000 rubles in 2020 after the propaganda outlets won lawsuits against the company.
And the daily penalties have been doubled each week since then, leading to the current fine overall being a heart-stopping $204.8 octillion.
Vladimir Putin‘s bloody invasion of Ukraine in 2022 didn’t help the situation as it resulted in more channels being banned.
YouTube blocked several Russian state-run media outlets over the support of the invasion, leading to Moscow retaliating with fines.
To put the figure into perspective, one X user said that if Google were to give Russia all the money produced this year since the universe began – it would only have paid a mere 3 per cent of the fine.
The Russian judge even called the bizarre situation with Google “a case in which there are many, many zeros”, according to The Register.
But there’s little chance of bankrupting Google as the tech giant has been inactive in Russia since 2022.
The company pulled the plug in Russia following the start of the Ukraine war.
Google’s Russian subsidiary therefore filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2002 and was officially declared bankrupt last Autumn.
Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, earlier stopped advertisement in Russia in order to align with Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.
In Alphabet’s last earnings statement, it said: “We have ongoing legal matters relating to Russia.
“For example, civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties.
“We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”
In 2023 Russia tabled a desperate plan to create its own Android smartphone, following an exodus of technology companies.
It came after the US Department of Commerce banned consumer technology exports over the price of $300 to Russia.
The decision from the US forms part of increasing global sanctions on Russia, as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.
At the time, Russia was setting aside 10billion rubles (£110.4million) with the goal of snagging 10% of the consumer phone market in just three years, Wired reported.
In the year since the war began, Russia has watched a long stream of businesses exit the country, such as Cisco, IBM, TSMC, Nokia and Ericsson.
