Google was fined two undecillion rubles: how much is it?

A Russian court has imposed a fine with 36 zeros on Google for refusing to restore the accounts of blocked propaganda Russian TV channels on its YouTube.

17 Russian TV channels are demanding a total of two undecillion rubles from Google due to the blocking of their YouTube accounts. RBC writes about this with reference to a source familiar with the course of the dispute. “Layout” talks about this in more detail.

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Undecillion - how much is it?

An undecillion is a number with 36 zeros (to understand the scale, the size of the universe in kilometers is calculated as a number with 23 zeros). A Russian court imposed such a fine on Google for refusing to restore the accounts of blocked propaganda Russian TV channels on YouTube, which it owns.

The lawsuit was filed by the TV channels “Zvezda”, “Channel One”, VGTRK (TV channels “Russia 1”, “Russia 24”, etc.), “Parliamentary Television”, “Moscow Media”, “TV-Center”, NTV, “GPM Entertainment Television”, “Public Television of Russia”, “TV Channel 360”, “TRK Petersburg”, “Orthodox Foundation television", "National Sports Channel", "Technological Company Center" and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

The fine is doubling every week and will soon reach fantastic values.

According to Russian legislation, the amount of the fine can increase without restrictions. If the court decision is not implemented within nine months from the date of its entry into force, a fine of 100 thousand rubles will be assessed for each day of non-compliance. The amount doubles every week until the solution is fulfilled.

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Thus, in a week the fine will double to four undecillion. By the 20th week, the amount will begin to be measured in octillions, and after five years the fine will be 3.7 centenovigintillion rubles (a number with 83 zeros). By 2030, Google's fine will reach the number of "googols" (one hundred zeros). As journalist Dmitry Kolezev notes , this number is much larger than estimates of the mass of the Universe in grams, which is why such calculations can be perceived more like mathematical fiction.

Why did the Russian court fine Google?

YouTube began mass blocking of accounts of Russian state TV channels and pro-Kremlin bloggers after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In response to this, they filed lawsuits in Russian courts and won them.

In November 2023, the court declared Google's Russian legal entity, Google LLC, bankrupt. The company filed a corresponding application due to the fact that by that time its debts exceeded 19 billion rubles, and its assets were only 3.5 billion rubles. Google's parent company, Alphabet, said in a report for the second quarter of 2024 that "Google has ongoing legal issues relating to Russia," but they "are not expected to have a material adverse effect on the operations" of the corporation.

Russian TV channels are demanding Google to comply with court decisions made in Russia through the courts of Turkey, Hungary, Spain, South Africa and other countries. In June, the South African High Court granted a request to seize Google's assets in the country.

Google itself filed lawsuits in the US and UK courts in August against the owners of the RT, Tsargrad and Spas TV channels. The company demands that they be prohibited from conducting legal proceedings outside of Russia.

Let us remind you that in August, some users from Russia encountered problems with YouTube . As Roskomsvoboda told Vorstka, problems in the service’s operation may be related to “experiments” in the operation of technical means of countering threats (TSPU) or at the provider level, and perhaps both there and there at the same time. Read about how to bypass YouTube slowdown on our website.

Photo: REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo

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