Russia issues $20 decillion fine to Google over YouTube channel ban amidst geopolitical tensions
A record fine over YouTube ban.
Russia has slapped Google with an astronomical fine of $20 decillion, or 2 undecillion rubles, over the tech giant’s removal of Russian state-backed TV channels from YouTube. This 33-digit penalty, which has been mounting for four years since the initial court case in 2020, far exceeds Google’s entire market value and dwarfs even the global GDP, which stands at around $110 trillion.
Legal experts note that such an enormous fine is largely symbolic. Roman Yankovsky from the HSE Institute of Education explained that Russia has no real way to enforce this penalty internationally, as Google’s market cap sits at just over $2 trillion. The original case stemmed from YouTube’s ban of the Russian channel Tsargrad, following US sanctions imposed on the channel’s parent company.
While Google hasn’t commented, analysts view the fine as part of Russia’s broader pushback against Western tech companies and their content policies.
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