Google Was Fined $2,565,635,200,000,003,000,000,000,000,000,000 By Russia For Blocking Their YouTube Channels

The Moscow Times- Google has racked up some 2 undecillion rubles ($2.5 decillion) worth of fines in Russia after years of refusing to restore the accounts of pro-Kremlin and state-run media outlets, the RBC news website reported Tuesday, citing an anonymous source familiar with court rulings against the tech company.

According to RBC’s sources, Google began accumulating daily penalties of 100,000 rubles in 2020 after the pro-government media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won lawsuits against the company for blocking their YouTube channels. Those daily penalties have doubled each week, leading to the current overall fine of around 2 undecillion rubles.

Undecillion is a number equal to 1 followed by 36 zeros. Google, whose parent company Alphabet reported a revenue of more than $307 billion in 2023, is unlikely to ever pay the incredibly high fine.

A total of 17 Russian TV channels have filed legal claims against Google, according to one of RBC’s sources. Among them are the state-run Channel One, the military-affiliated Zvezda broadcaster and a company representing RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

I don't like giving props to Russia since they have been pushed as the enemy ever since I was a pup growing up during the final years of the Cold War in the 80s. But hitting Google with a fine that not even Google can dream of paying because it's more money than the entire world has is fucking impressive as Vlady Putin finally went Full Dr. Evil by asking for $2.5 decillion, which I didn't even know was a thing until now.

To be honest, I'm not even sure if this blog will actually publish because I don't know if the Barstool backend can handle a number that big in the headline, which to clarify is 2.5 trillion trillion trillion dollars.. Just an awe inspiring number that must've made some poor intern at the Google Accounts Payable department shit themselves after they saw it on a letter from the Kremlin (which even I have to admit is a pretty badass name, even though I am not exactly sure what the Kremlin completely entails). Now all that's left is for Russia to fine Google a googol, which Google will tell us is 10 to the 100th power, which is 1 followed by 100 zeros.