Russia wants Google to pay a $20 decillion fine for blocking YouTube channels
Russia wants Google to pay an unfathomable amount of money in fines: $20 decillion, reportedly.
For the non-mathematicians out there, that is 2 followed by 34 zeroes.
The fine has been accruing and doubling weekly since 2020 after Kremlin-backed news services Tsargrad and RIA FAN won court cases over the blocking of their YouTube channels, wrote The Moscow Times, citing a report from the Russian news service RBC. The fine has also grown as 15 other channels have won cases against Google, bringing the total to — wait for it — 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, Gizmodo reported.
Google has reportedly not paid the fines, which has led to the astronomical figure. Even if it wanted to, the tech giant could not pay what it owes. Estimates vary on how much money exists in the world, but it doesn't even come close to $20 trillion.
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To be clear, the exact amount Google owes has varied a bit from news source to news source. That's honestly to be expected, considering we're dealing with a practically hypothetical number of rubles that are then converted to dollars. The point is clear, however: It's an impossible amount of money.
Perhaps Google will have to cut back on nights out and avocado toast for a bit.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
