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Big Tech goes up against Russian state media

Google, Meta, and Twitter are blocking Kremlin owned channels from selling ads and pushing propaganda as part of ongoing sanctions against Russia.

It’s been four days since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, and Big Tech is starting to respond.

Sanctions against Russia from EU nations and members of NATO continue to come to light, and self-governed social media websites are now making their respective stances clear.

Something of a joint digital embargo is underway to prevent the Kremlin state from profiting or spreading propaganda online for what YouTube seniors cite as ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

Meanwhile, this state of play, predictably, is being countered by Russia. At present, Twitter and Facebook are both partially restricted in the country and Putin is pushing back against efforts to fact-check state media accounts.

We’ve seen this sort of thing pan out before – notably when Google and Facebook paused political ads during the 2020 US election – but you can expect the online retort to be even firmer in this instance.


Which platforms are involved?

On Friday, within a matter of hours, both Facebook’s parent company Meta and Twitter announced separate bans to all Russian state-owned media from running ads on their platforms.

‘We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetising on our platform anywhere in the world,’ announced Nataniel Gliecher, head of security at Meta. He also stated that further penalties are in the works to be added shortly.

On the same day, @TwitterSafety revealed Twitter is ‘temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it.’

24 hours on, YouTube announced that it would be heavily restricting access to Russian channels, including RT – a largely pro-Putin news outlet regarded as the CNN of Russia – so that its content is not accessible from Ukraine. Again, the option to buy ad space is off the table.

Google then followed its subsidiary by ruling out monetisation opportunities on its search engine, and Gmail feature, as well as disabling Google Maps tools which may have helped Russian forces navigate Ukraine.


What impact is this having?

This digital exodus from Russia, which will no doubt escalate in the coming weeks and months, will see the nation lose out on some serious capital.

When it comes to YouTube revenue, Russia tends to earn around $32m a year from state-backed channels alone, according to Reuters.

Clearly irked by the situation, Russia’s state communications regulator has now written to Google and demanded that these restrictions be lifted, though there’s no sign of the conglomerate complying.

The state of Moscow has also ordered Facebook to stop independent fact-checking on the site and, crucially, to stop labelling content from Russian outlets as being associated with the Kremlin.

Russia’s communications agency and Prosecutor General’s Office stated that they have ‘in agreement with the Foreign Ministry, decided to recognise the social network Facebook as involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.’

Rather Ironically, however, the nation’s own ‘partial restrictions’ for Twitter and Facebook that followed this complaint have led to complete outages in some major Russian cities. Users are even reporting that VPNs aren’t working.

While the standoff with Big Tech is far from resolved and momentum will likely swing day-to-day, it does appear that unfounded anti-Ukrainian rhetoric will not be allowed to proliferate online, and that public safety is of the upmost importance.

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