YouTube parent company Google announced Tuesday that it has blocked Russian state news channels RT and Sputnik for all European users due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The two major Russian news organizations are funded by the government and considered mouthpieces of President Vladimir Putin‘s regime, which has been accused of spreading disinformation to justify its war in Ukraine.
“Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately,” Google Europe said in a tweet. “It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.”
RT International has a significant presence on YouTube, with more than 4.66 million subscribers and over 10 billion views, according to the network.
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The owner of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, announced on Monday that it blocked RT and Sputnik on both platforms after receiving requests to do so from multiple European Union governments.
Under pressure from their users and government officials, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter have all announced efforts to block Russian state media from running ads and monetizing content on their platforms and are also trying to reduce the spread of Russian disinformation about what is happening in Ukraine. Some of the platforms have even restricted access to Russian government accounts altogether.
Facebook and Twitter also announced recently that they would place special labels on content from Russian state media and have expanded their Russian- and Ukrainian-language fact-checking operations.
Two anti-Ukraine disinformation operations that were taken down by Facebook over the weekend were tied to Ukraine Today, a Russian propaganda news outfit created to make Ukraine look like a failed state by using fake profiles on Facebook. Russian state media last week also falsely reported a Ukrainian civilian genocide as a way to justify the Russian invasion.
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The Russian government, on the other hand, has partially restricted local access to some of the social media giants, such as Facebook and Twitter, as protesters have used the platforms to organize and voice opposition to the war.
