In a further expansion of its political response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, YouTube said it is now banning Kremlin-backed media globally, not just in Europe.
And the European Union last week imposed sanctions on two Russian state channels, Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries.
Despite the magnitude of the step, it is not unprecedented. Last week, Apple pulled Russia Today and Sputnik apps from its global app stores.
This followed a request from Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailo Fedorov, who wrote a letter to CEO Tim Cook asking Apple to stop sales of devices in Russia and block access to the App Store.
YouTube’s wording suggests it could go as far as banning the RT and Sputnik six entities that have been sanctioned by the European Union.
The company wrote that it is now blocking access to YouTube channels linked to Russian state-funded media globally.
Expanded platform bans against Russian state media took effect. But according to the policy update, the platform warned that the change could take some time. We expect our systems to take some time, she wrote.
The platform says it implements some Ukraine-focused policies that ban content that denies or downplays well-documented incidents of violence. It indicated that it was in the process of removing content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that violated this policy.
These steps are intended to respond to Russian propaganda that is being disseminated to deny the truth of reports about what is happening inside Ukraine.
YouTube has become a worldwide ban
The platform said it has removed more than 1,000 channels and more than 15,000 videos for violating a number of policies. Violated policies include hate speech, misinformation, graphic content, and more.
- It also illustrated progress in previously announced measures to amplify high-quality information about the war. This means helping to show honest reporting and distinguishing it from Kremlin propaganda.
- She said there have been over 17 million views of reliable news sources in Ukraine since the changes were made.
- In another move targeting YouTube users in Russia, the platform also confirmed that it has extended the pause period for ads in the country to also include all the ways in which users can monetize via the platform.
- This blocks all revenue. This comes after I previously left some monetization options open for Russian users.
Google also said it was suspending its App Store billing and YouTube payments in Russia as a result of Western sanctions targeting Russian banks.
