Quote:Russia has fined Google $2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or more money than actually exists on Earth, all because it's upset about some YouTube channels.What's the most shocking bill you've ever got in the post? Personally, I'm still financially recovering from winter 2022, when a dalliance with an electric heater landed a fat £300 invoice on my doorstep. I write about videogames and subsist on coal soup, and there was Octopus Energy sending me a bill it presumably intended for Jeff Bezos.
Could be worse, though. I could be the guy at Google who had to open its $2.5 decillion fine from the Russian government (via The Moscow Times). Yes, that's decillion, which is a one followed by 33 zeroes. That means Russia wants Google to pay it $2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The number in rubles is even more absurd: ₽2 undecillion, or two followed by 36 zeroes.
 For reference, the World Bank estimates the sum total of world GDP last year at $105,000,000,000,000—or one hundred and five trillion dollars. In 2017 (a while back, but not so far back that the numbers will be radically different today), MarketWatch generously valued the sum total of anything you could conceivably call 'money on Earth'—including cryptocurrencies, above-ground gold supply, and funds invested in financial products—at several quadrillions.

You may wonder how Google came to owe this ungodly sum to the Russian state. Per RBC it's because, erm, YouTube blocked some Russian channels. In 2020, pro-Kremlin media channels Tsargrad and RIA FAN (part of the Patriot Media Group formerly headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a stalwart Putin ally before he attempted to launch a coup last year and subsequently exploded in mid-air) won lawsuits against Google after the latter blocked their YouTube channels. The punishment? Daily penalties of ₽100,000, which doubled each week.

(10-30-2024, 09:47 AM)Kurokage Wrote: Russia fines Google...

This is obviously a very sad and childish attempt by the Kremlin and Russian courts to 'attack' a western company for removing it's propaganda channels on Youtube, and I see no way Google even acknowledging this laughable fine. Do the members here think this will have any impact on Google and it's future. Once Putin is removed, do you think this will effect Googles future return to Russia?

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(10-30-2024, 09:47 AM)Kurokage Wrote: Russia fines Google...

This is obviously a very sad and childish attempt by the Kremlin and Russian courts to 'attack' a western company for removing it's propaganda channels on Youtube, and I see no way Google even acknowledging this laughable fine. Do the members here think this will have any impact on Google and it's future. Once Putin is removed, do you think this will effect Googles future return to Russia?

(10-30-2024, 10:02 AM)Maxmars Wrote: I'm getting the impression that Russia is attempting to 'stay relevant' in the global news cycle.  All these hyperbolic articles seem to have popped up almost simultaneously... but that's not to say it's just a 'distraction,'... (just that it could be.)

This grievance is long-standing though.

(10-30-2024, 11:56 AM)FlyersFan Wrote: Kremlin = clown city.

And the people of Russia have been so socially engineered that they can't see what slaves they have become.

make russia small again - Volodymyr Zelenskyy

(10-30-2024, 01:44 PM)Encia22 Wrote: They'll have to get in line behind me. Google owe me €0.08 for a Rewards questionnaire I answered and they never coughed up coin.  Bastards!