In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Alphabet Inc’s Google announced that they have barred Russia’s state-owned media outlet RT and other channels from receiving money for ads on their websites, apps, and YouTube videos. The social media giant, Facebook has also announced that they will ban Russian state media outlets from advertising or monetizing their content on the social media network.
In a statement, Google Europe said on Saturday, “In the light of the extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine, we are taking a number of measures. We are suspending the monetization of some YouTube channels, including several Russian channels related to recent sanctions. We will significantly limit the recommendations for these channels. Also, in response to a government request, we restricted access to RT and a number of other channels in Ukraine. We will continue to monitor new developments and may take further action.”
The social media giants are also taking steps to fight fake news
Facebook’s parent company Meta in an official statement said, “We are taking extensive steps to fight the spread of misinformation by expanding our third-party fact-checking capacity in Russian and Ukrainian. We’re also providing more transparency around state-controlled media outlets, prohibiting ads from Russian state media and demonetizing their accounts.”
Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of security policy at Facebook earlier said, “We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend. We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and will keep sharing steps we are taking to protect people on our platform.”
