A burning oil depot is believed to have been shelled near Vasylkiv in the Kyiv . region
Washington:
On Saturday, Google became the latest US tech giant to block Russian state media from monetizing its platform in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
It follows similar moves by subsidiaries YouTube and Facebook.
“In response to the war in Ukraine, we are suspending Google from monetizing Russian state-sponsored media on our platforms,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. .
“We are actively monitoring new developments and will take further steps if necessary.”
The move was revealed hours after YouTube announced it would block some Russian media channels from monetizing their videos, among other restrictions.
A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement: “Against the unusual circumstances in Ukraine, we are taking a number of actions.”
“Our teams have begun pausing the monetization of certain channels on YouTube, including RT’s YouTube channels globally,” the spokesperson said, referring to the publisher-run news agency. sponsored by Russia.
YouTube channels make money through ads that appear when users watch their videos.
On Friday, Facebook also said it was banning Russian state-run media outlets from running ads and monetizing through its platform.
Countries around the globe have enacted broad sanctions against Russian businesses, banks and officials following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the platform said: “As always, our teams are continuing to closely monitor new developments, including assessing whether any new sanctions and export controls have could make sense for YouTube.”
In addition to monetization restrictions, YouTube added that it will limit recommendations to similar channels and is “continued to actively display authoritative news content” in related search results. Russia and Ukraine.
Videos from RT and some other channels will also be “restricted” by YouTube, the company said.
In early February, Germany banned RT, which prompted Russia to close the German media office Deutsche Welle in Moscow.
RT, founded in 2005 as “Russia Today”, is regularly accused by Western authorities of contributing to disinformation.
YouTube notes that over the past few days, it has removed hundreds of channels, including some for “coordinated deceptive practices,” the term the company uses to refer to misinformation.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
