To stop the spread of misinformation, several major social media sites have opted to ban Russian state-sponsored ads on their platforms. If you haven’t been keeping up, the restrictions come after Russia recently launched an invasion of Ukraine after months of buildup.
The latest platform to take action against the Kremlin is search engine giant Google, along with its subsidiary YouTube. The company said that it’s pausing monetisation of Russian state-funded media across its sites in response to the war.
Russian state media channels, including RT, are banned from selling ads on YouTube and the site will significantly limit recommendations to these channels. The country’s media-monitoring agency, Roskomnadzor, has demanded Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to lift the restrictions on some of its YouTube channels, including media outlets RBC, TV Zvezda, and Sputnik.
1/ 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.
— Nathaniel Gleicher @ngleicher@infosec.exchange (@ngleicher) February 26, 2022
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has also announced a ban on Russian media from running ads on its platforms. Taking it a step further, Twitter paused all advertising on its site in both Russia and Ukraine to ensure the visibility of public safety information.
Following the restrictions, internet monitor NetBlocks reported that the Kremlin has limited access to Facebook and Twitter in the country. Both platforms have encouraged Russian and Ukrainian users to delete or lock their accounts, if they felt unsafe or have been victims of Russian hacking.
(Sources: Axios, Reuters [1][2])
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