It has been more than three days since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, social media platforms including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have made announcements regarding ads on their respective platforms so that users are not distracted by irrelevant information. Here is the detailed breakdown of how these platforms will now function for “Russian State media”.
YouTube
As per a report by Reuters, Google has prohibited Russia’s state-owned outlet from advertising and earning money on YouTube. According to the report, YouTube said in a statement that it’s “pausing a number of channels’ ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions.”
With this ban, channels including RT in question will appear a lot less in recommendations. They will also be restricted in Ukraine due to “a government request”. For the unversed, Ukrainian digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov had earlier requested YouTube to stop Russian propaganda on the platform.
Facebook has banned “Russian state media” from running ads and monetizing content on the platform. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy made the announcement on Twitter on Friday. As per his tweet, “We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.”
2/ We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and will keep sharing steps we’re taking to protect people on our platform. https://t.co/mTatqghCzQ
— Nathaniel Gleicher (@ngleicher) February 26, 2022
Following this, a Facebook blog was published regarding the same topic. As per the blog, “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.”
For the unversed, Russia has “partially restricted” Facebook access in the country for censoring its four media outlets. According to Facebook, Russia’s tech and communication regulator had ordered the social media platform “to stop fact-checking and labeling content from state-owned media”. However, Facebook refused to comply.
Twitter has announced that it is temporarily pausing ads in Ukraine and Russia so that public safety information is more visible. As per the official tweet, “We’re temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it.” Twitter has also highlighted a few safety measures that it is taking for people in Ukraine.
The microblogging platform is “proactively reviewing tweets to detect platform manipulation” and is taking “enforcement action” against them. Twitter is currently monitoring accounts of journalists, government officials, activists, and other high-profile accounts. However, Russia has blocked Twitter in the country, reported The Verge. The company has acknowledged that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia.
We believe people should have free and open access to the Internet, which is particularly important during times of crisis. https://t.co/xnm4xtzpKd
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) February 26, 2022
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