Moscow court orders Google to pay staggering fine of $20 decillion for blocking Russian media on YouTube
A court in Moscow has demanded that Google pay US$20 decillion for blocking a large number of Russian TV channels and media outlets on YouTube, according to multiple reports.
The staggering fine of $20 decillion, which is 20 with 33 zeros attached, is “symbolic” and intended to push the company to rectify the issues it has with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
The Moscow Arbitration Court imposed the fine after 17 of Russia's TV channels and media platforms were blocked from YouTube, which Google owns.
The fine is supposed to make the American company “pay attention” to the problem and fix it, Peskov said.
“This is a specifically formulated sum, I actually can’t even pronounce this figure, but it is rather filled with symbolism,” he said, explaining that Google “should not limit the actions of our broadcasters on a whim.”
"The company should not restrict our broadcasters on their platform. This should be a reason for the Google leadership to pay attention to this and improve the situation,” he said.
The colossal figure stems from a series of lawsuits filed against Google by 17 Russian broadcasters which said the tech giant unlawfully blocked content and took down their YouTube channels.
The channels were blocked after Russia and Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022.
In October 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google to restore YouTube access to the blocked Russian channels, placing a compounding penalty of 100,000 rubles per day ($1,028) for non-compliance on the company.
According to the court’s ruling, the penalty doubles every week. With no cap imposed on the fine, it has now reached the $20.6 billion mark and is set to grow even further, according to RT.
The dispute between Google and Russian broadcasters began in 2020, when the American company took down the YouTube channels of Tsargrad TV and RIA news agency, citing US sanctions against their owners.
Dozens of other news channels were blocked on the platform, including those of RT and Sputnik, after the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated in February 2022.
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