Russia-Ukraine war: Google bans Russian state media from running ads & monetising content

After Meta, Google also announced that it was banning Russian State Media from running advertisements, and monetisation across all its services including YouTube, as they escalated the Russia-Ukraine war. Earlier, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook echoed similar measures. 

In a statement, Google Europe said on Saturday, "In the light of the extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine, we are taking a number of measures."

"We are suspending the monetization of some YouTube channels, including several Russian channels related to recent sanctions. We will significantly limit the recommendations for these channels. Also in response to a government request, we restricted access to RT and a number of other channels in Ukraine. We will continue to monitor new developments and may take further action," it added.

In a separate message on Friday, Google had said that the company's threat intelligence teams were searching and disrupting "disinformation campaigns, government-backed hacking and financially motivated abuses, and work with other companies and relevant government agencies to address these threats."

Social media giants step in amid Russia-Ukraine war

Social media giants have also stepped in the Russia-Ukraine war. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, banned from running advertisements and monetising their content. In a statement on Saturday, Meta said, "We’re taking extensive steps to fight the spread of misinformation by expanding our third-party fact-checking capacity in Russian and Ukrainian. We’re also providing more transparency around state-controlled media outlets, prohibiting ads from Russian state media and demonetizing their accounts."

Twitter, where the Ukrainian army has been posting updates about the casualties and outcome of Russian artillery, said, "We’re aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia and are working to keep our service safe and accessible."

Meanwhile, as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to intensify for the fourth day in a row, the Ukrainian health ministry had said on Saturday that 198 civilians have been killed in the country.

Viktor Liashko, head of the Ukrainian health ministry, according to Ukrinform, said three children were among those who died. Separately, Ukrainian Defense had claimed that 3,500 Russian occupiers were killed and nearly 200 were taken as prisoners. Russian Army stated its varying death tolls and even claimed to capture several cities in the neighbouring nation.

Image: AP