youtube says that it will start completely blocking YouTube channels financed by the Russian government, after blocked channels like RT and Sputnik in Europe earlier this month. The company also announced that it would remove content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that denies, downplays or trivializes “well-documented violent events.”
At the time of writing this report, two Americans Edge employees could still access live feeds from RT, a channel that, according to the YouTube interface, is “funded in whole or in part by the Russian government.” According to a tweet from the YouTube Insider account, the change is supposed to go into effect immediately, but the company says it expects it to take a while for its systems to implement it.
2/ In line with that, we are now also blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally, expanding across Europe. This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to get up and running.
—YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 11, 2022
various platforms, including YouTube, had prevented European users from accessing content created by Russian state media. The Russian government has responded to the policies of tech companies by blocking or limiting access to sites like Facebook or Twitter. today announced that it will be ban instagram in the country starting March 14.
While not being able to access content from channels like RT and Sputnik around the world is an escalation for YouTube, Google had already made it so that channels couldn’t monetize their videos. In late February, the company said Russian state media they would not be allowed to post ads on their videos. Last week, Google went a step further by pause all ad sales in Russia.