The unspeakable sum should prompt the company to heed the demands of banned Russian broadcasters, Dmitry Peskov has said
The staggering fine of $20 decillion Google now owes to Russian broadcasters who were banned from YouTube is “symbolic” and intended to push the company to rectify the issues it has with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
The eye-watering sum is supposed to make the company “pay attention” to the problem and fix it, Peskov suggested on Thursday.
“This is a specifically formulated sum, I actually can’t even pronounce this figure, but it is rather filled with symbolism,” he said, explaining that Google “should not limit the actions of our broadcasters on a whim.”
The colossal figure was first reported by RBK news outlet on Tuesday and stems from a series of lawsuits filed against Google by 17 Russian broadcasters which accused the tech giant of unlawfully blocking content and taking down their YouTube channels.
Back in October 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google to restore YouTube access to the blocked Russian channels, placing a compounding penalty of 100,000 rubles per day ($1,028) for non-compliance on the company. The penalty doubles every week, according to the court’s ruling. With no cap imposed on the fine, it has now reached the $20.6 decillion mark and is set to grow even further.
The dispute between the tech giant and Russian broadcasters dates back to 2020, when the company took down the YouTube channels of Tsargrad TV and RIA news agency, citing US sanctions against their owners.
Things got worse for Russian outlets after the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated in February 2022, with dozens of other news channels blocked on the platform, including those of RT and Sputnik. A number of broadcasters subsequently sued the tech giant, winning the case in the Moscow Arbitration Court.
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