Washington: After YouTube, Google on Sunday banned Russian state media organization RT and other channels from receiving money from advertisements on videos on their websites and apps. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Facebook also imposed a similar ban on Russian state media. Before the announcement of YouTube, Facebook’s owner company Meta had demonetized Russian government media on Facebook.
Before Google on Sunday, YouTube banned several Russian channels, including the Russian government’s media organization RT, from earning money from ads that accompany their videos. Citing ‘extraordinary circumstances’, YouTube said that YouTube is prohibiting the monetization of several channels. Including many Russian channels involved in the recent EU sanctions. It is worth noting that ad placement on videos is largely controlled by YouTube itself. While the social media company Twitter also said in a tweet that the use of Twitter is being banned for some users in Russia.
For the past several years, YouTube has been asked to take action against channels affiliated with the Russian government. They have been accused of spreading propaganda, and they should not benefit from it. According to an estimate, Russia received between 7 million and 32 million dollars from advertisements on 26 YouTube channels in the two years to December 2018. Significantly, the European Union on Wednesday announced a ban on some individuals, including Margarita Simonyan. Margarita Simonyan is described as the editor-in-chief of RT and ‘a major figure’ of Russian propaganda.
