News of the Cyber World

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Russia fines Google $20.5 decillion — more than the entire world’s GDP — for allegedly blocking Kremlin propaganda

Why fine Google $1 million when you can fine it $20.5 decillion?

A Russian court has ordered Google to pay a fine worth more than the entire world’s GDP — with an additional $1 million daily penalty — after the tech giant allegedly barred pro-Moscow propaganda channels on YouTube.

The absurd amount would be written as 20 followed by 33 zeros, which far eclipses Google’s own $2 trillion value — and is akin to the outrageous ransom demands made by the fictional Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movie franchise.

The penalty, first reported by Russia’s RBC state news agency, was issued Tuesday as the result of an initial $1 million fine levied against the company four years ago for banning the pro-Kremlin YouTube channels Tsargrad and RIA FAN.

Russian courts had warned at the time that the amount would double every day until the balance was paid and the YouTube accounts restored.

Google shut down its Russian division in 2022 following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, with its local subsidiary declaring bankruptcy.

The company also closed its Google AdSense in Russia over the summer, meaning local content creators would “no longer be able to receive monetization.”

Google and its YouTube services have remained accessible to Russians, with the legal battle taking a turn in August when Moscow seized more than $100 million from Google’s bankruptcy entity to help fund the war in Ukraine, the Telegraph reports.

Russia touted that the money was handed to the channels blocked by Google, including Tsargrad, which is owned by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, according to court documents.
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Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says US military should ditch tanks in favor of drones: ‘Give them away’

Eric Schmidt, the billionaire investor and former CEO of Google, said it’s time for the US military to do away with tanks, artillery and mortars in favor of aerial drones similar to the ones that he is building to help Ukraine.

“I read somewhere that the US had thousands and thousands of tanks stored somewhere,” he told the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

“Give them away. Buy a drone instead.”

Schmidt’s comments were reported by Bloomberg News.

Schmidt is listed by Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the 51st richest person in the world with a fortune valued at $33.3 billion as of Wednesday.

The former Google boss said that the Russia-Ukraine war has shown how “a $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank.”

Earlier this year, Forbes reported that Schmidt is the founder of White Stork, a military startup that is building a “kamikaze drone” which is designed to loiter on the battlefield before being dispatched to destroy its target.

“White Stork” is also a reference to a species of bird that is commonly found in Ukraine, where Schmidt has taken on a significant role in helping the country’s defense efforts to repel the Russian invasion.

The company has been developing a mass-producible drone that uses artificial intelligence to zero in on a target even in environments were communications have been interrupted by GPS jamming, according to Forbes.

In July of last year, Schmidt penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal touting drones as “the future of war.

Google accused of imposing illegal ‘gag order’ blocking workers from discussing antitrust cases

A union representing Google employees is demanding the tech giant lift what it called an illegal “gag order” barring them from discussing landmark antitrust cases that could upend the company’s business.

On Aug. 5, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google is a “monopolist” with an illegal stranglehold over the online search market.

That same day, Google president of global affairs Kent Walker instructed employees not to comment on the case inside or outside the workplace.

The Alphabet Workers Union alleges that Walker violated a federal labor law with the “overly board directive” in a bid to “suppress worker speech” related to the antitrust battles, according to a copy of the Aug. 15 filing obtained by The Post.

“Our employer continues to demonstrate a blatant disregard for federal labor law and our right to discuss working conditions with coworkers—up to and including the proposed remedies of federal antitrust actions that could affect many of our jobs at Google,” said Parul Koul, a Google software engineer and president of Alphabet Workers Union.

Mehta is expected to decide on remedies to address Google’s search monopoly by next summer.

Google parent Alphabet posts 15% jump in revenue as CEO says AI investments ‘paying off’

Google parent Alphabet topped third-quarter revenue and earnings expectations on Tuesday, helped by an AI-driven 35% surge in its cloud business as well as a jump in its digital advertising revenue.

Alphabet shares, which closed up 1.8% on Tuesday, were up 4.4% in after-hours trading. The stock has risen nearly 22% this year, in line with the broader market.

CEO Sundar Pichai said investments in AI were “paying off” through use and sales in its Search and Cloud businesses.

Perceived as slow to catch up with Big Tech rival Microsoft in the AI race, Google has been beefing up its Gemini AI chatbot and working out more improvements to its AI-powered search offering. The company is continuing to spend big on AI.

Its new chief financial officer, Anat Ashkenazi, fielding her first analyst call, said Alphabet’s capital expenditures in 2025 would be higher than this year.

In the third quarter, Alphabet’s capex rose 62% to $13 billion. The fourth quarter is expected to be similar, she said.

Revenue from Google’s cloud platform grew to $11.35 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $10.86 billion.

It was the fastest pace of growth in eight quarters, thanks to enterprises doubling down on cloud spending, which is essential to power artificial-intelligence technologies.

“I do think it was an impressive quarter because the fact that Google Cloud could more than offset Search decline speaks both to the growing importance of cloud revenues and the fact that the company continues to diversify its revenue base,” said Bob O’Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research.

Amazon Workers Appalled

Amazon workers ‘appalled’ by top exec’s explanation for 5-day return to office policy

More than 500 Amazon employees sent a letter on Wednesday to the CEO of its AWS unit urging reversal of a full return-to-office policy and rejecting his assertion that the rule had broad support and opponents should leave Amazon Web Services.

“We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day in-office mandate,” the letter begins.

AWS CEO Matt Garman, at an Oct. 17 all-hands meeting of the cloud computing unit, said nine out of 10 workers he had spoken with supported the return-to-office policy, set to take effect early next year.

Those comments are “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and are “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon,” according to the letter, which Reuters reviewed after it was sent to Garman.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company offers commuter benefits, elder care and subsidized parking rates, among other things, to help with in-office work.

Garman had said he was “quite excited about this change” and that, under the current three-day-per-week policy, collaboration was too difficult because people may be in offices on different days.

The company-wide policy, announced in September by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, has been controversial inside Amazon, with many calling it wasteful because it adds commuting time and expense when remote work has been effective. Some say they plan to leave the company. Amazon has enforced the policy by asking many workers to go to regional offices, move to Seattle or “voluntarily resign.”

Garman’s comments do not reflect any independent data, the letter says, and “break the trust of your employees who have not only personal experience that shows the benefits of remote work, but have seen the extensive data which supports that experience.”

Requiring five days in the office every week also particularly impacts protected classes of workers such as those with neurodiversity or childcare responsibilities and “does not uphold Amazon’s espoused “Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer” leadership principle,” according to the letter.