Russia Vs Ukraine: YouTube Banned Russian State Tv Channel

YouTube has taken an unprecedented step in its response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. It has been announced that Kremlin-backed media outlets will no longer be available worldwide. YouTube has banned Russia’s state-affiliated channel “Russia Today (RT)” and Sputnik’s YouTube channels.

Last week Apple pulled RT and Sputnik’s apps from its global App Stores following a request by Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov. His letter to CEO Tim Cook includes a request that Apple also stops device sales in Russia and block access to the App Store entirely.

YouTube announced that as well as RT & Sputnik, it has removed more than 1,000 channels and over 15,000 videos for violating its hate speech policy, misinformation policies, graphic content policies, and more.

In just a few weeks since the company made changes directing users to these sources, there have been 17 million views of truthful reporting about Ukraine. The company has said, It is also looking to improve the situation in Ukraine by promoting quality news sources.

YouTube and Google also have imposed new sanctions on Russian users. YouTube has halted advertising or monetizing content with ads, which was already happening as a result of Western sanctions targeting Russian banks. The platforms will be blocking Russian users’ access to YouTube’s payment and Google Play Store transactions.

2/ In line with that, we are also now blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally, expanding from across Europe. This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 11, 2022

Remember that, In 2021’s US Elections, Facebook and Twitter also had banned accounts or content coming from Russia that leads to interference in the U.S. presidential election.