Good luck. Russia calls for Google pay a nice value greater than the world’s complete GDP, over YouTube bans on pro-Russian media shops
Alphabet’s Google now owes the Russian authorities roughly $20 decillion (20 adopted by 33 zeros) after pro-Russian media shops had been banned on YouTube plenty of years in the past.
The pointless nice, which is much larger than the world’s complete GDP (estimated at $110 trillion by the Worldwide Financial Fund), must be paid if Google ever needs to return, the Russian state media outlet Tass reported.
It comes after Moscow’s Tagansky district court docket fined each Google and Discord 3.5 million roubles ($37,674.92) every final month, in a symbolic act as Google (like many different tech platforms) has already exited Russia.
Pointless nice
The nice of two decillion rubles remains to be rising and doubles daily attributable to non cost of a nice, reported Tass, citing lawyer Ivan Morozov.
A decillion is reportedly a trillion instances a trillion instances a trillion.
“Google was known as by a Russian court docket to administrative legal responsibility underneath Artwork. 13.41 of the Administrative Offences Code for eradicating channels on the YouTube platform. The court docket ordered the corporate to revive these channels,” the lawyer informed Tass.
The ruling stipulates that if the nice is just not paid inside 9 months, it doubles daily after that, and there’s no restrict on this quantity, Morozov reportedly stated.
Google can return to the Russian market provided that it complies with the court docket’s determination, however that is extremely unlikely given the present relationship between Russia and a lot of the world, over Moscow’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine that has turned Russia right into a pariah nation.
Google nevertheless is reportedly additionally combating makes an attempt by Russian broadcasters to implement the fines in international jurisdictions, together with Russia-friendly nations similar to South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.
Symbolic act?
The Guardian reported that Kremlin has stated that Russia’s large fines imposed on Google had been largely symbolic and designed to spur the US tech firm into lifting restrictions on Russian YouTube channels.
The nice is as a result of Google has not restored YouTube accounts belonging to 17 Russian TV channels together with state-owned RT and Tsargrad (owned by a Russian oligarch).
In early 2022 YouTube blocked channels linked to Russian state-backed media shops RT and Sputnik over its faux propaganda claims, amidst punishing international sanctions towards Russia.
Previous to that in September 2021, YouTube had deleted the German-language channels of RT (previously Russia At the moment), for breaking its insurance policies and guidelines surrounding Coronavirus misinformation.
Fb proprietor Meta Platforms additionally banned Russian state media shops in September this yr, for allegedly utilizing misleading ways to hold out covert affect operations on-line.
Symbolic nice
YouTube remains to be accessible in Russia regardless of extreme throttling and outages in the summertime by Russian authorities.
Russian authorities have repeatedly threatened to take YouTube offline over its bans on state-owned Russian content material.
Platforms already banned in Russia embrace Meta/Fb, X Corp (previously Twitter) and Instagram.
Meta’s WhatsApp had been Russia’s hottest messaging platform, however it was blocked in Russia in March 2023, alongside Snapchat, Discord, Skype for Enterprise, Microsoft Groups, and Telegram.
However Moscow has little leverage left towards Google, regardless of YouTube nonetheless internet hosting many Western bloggers factually overlaying Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, permitting Russian residents to entry impartial information and on-line content material exterior of Moscow’s strict propaganda controls.
In Could 2022 Russian bailiffs had seized 7.7bn roubles from Google that had been ordered as a part of a nice calculated on the idea of the corporate’s annual turnover – which had been the primary time such a nice had been levied in Russia.
The Russian unit of Google was really declared bankrupt by a court docket in Moscow in October 2023 after greater than a yr of proceedings that stemmed from native officers’ seizure of funds from the corporate’s checking account in Could 2022 in cost of a nice.
Apart from YouTube, Google continues to supply free companies similar to Search, YouTube and Gmail in Russia.
