A Russian court has reportedly hit Google with a truly astronomical fine for blocking a group of television channels on YouTube.
The court says Google has amassed a 2 undecillion ruble fine – worth about $20 decillion USD – for blocking accounts of pro-Russia and state-run media outlets, reports the Russia-based media outlet RBC.
The Russian media firms sued Google after the tech giant reportedly blocked the channels due to “violations of sanctions legislation and trade rules.”
According to the RBC, the courts ordered Google to pay an initial 100,000 ruble fine – a penalty that has doubled every week that the channels are not restored.
“Undecillion” is an incredibly large number, equal to 1 followed by 36 zeros. A “decillion” is a number equal to 1 followed by 33 zeros.
In plain English, the $20 decillion fine breaks down to twenty-thousand-billion-billion-billion dollars.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, reported a net profit of $73.8 billion for the fiscal year 2023, an increase from $60 billion in 2022.
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