The Russian attack on Ukraine is also having an impact on social media. The US media groups Twitter and Facebook are blocking parts of their services, and YouTube is restricting Russia Today.
The Facebook group Meta and the short message service Twitter are reacting to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine with restrictions on their social networks. The security chief at Facebook, Nathaniel Gleicher, announced on Twitter on Saturday that Russian state media are being prevented from placing ads on the social network worldwide or making money there.
Twitter, in turn, is blocking ads in Russia and Ukraine until further notice. This is to ensure that important information on public safety is highlighted, it said. Advertising distracts from that.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Digitization Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling on him to support sanctions against Russia by blocking Apple services, including the app store. The letter, which was circulated on Twitter, said: “We need your support – in 2022 modern technology may be the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers (Grad), and rockets”. He concluded by saying: “We are sure that such actions will motivate the youth and active population of Russia to proactively stop the shameful military aggression.”
In response to the conflict in Ukraine, a special operations center with experts was set up in order to be able to react as quickly as possible, explained Facebook security chief Gleicher. “We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and will continue to share our steps to protect people on our platform.” Russia had partially restricted Facebook the day before. The communications supervisor Roskomnadzor in Moscow had accused the Facebook group of having violated “fundamental human rights and freedoms” and “rights and freedoms of Russian citizens” by blocking Russian media on the network.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine and the associated propaganda war, the YouTube video network noticeably restricted several Russian state media on the video platform. “We are pausing monetization of a number of channels on YouTube, including several Russian channels related to recent sanctions,” a spokesman for the service said on Saturday.
The restrictions primarily affect the Russian foreign television program RT, which was called “Russia Today” until 2009 and is classified in the West as the Russian government’s propaganda channel.
RT is accused, among other things, of targeted disinformation such as the dissemination of conspiracy theories and justifying the war of aggression against Ukraine.
YouTube will significantly limit the recommendations for these channels, said the YouTube spokesman. “In response to a government request, we have restricted access to RT and a number of other channels in Ukraine. We will continue to monitor new developments and may take further action.”
In Germany, YouTube had previously taken action against the German offshoot of RT in the context of false information about the corona pandemic. The German-language channel RT DE was deleted in September for violating community guidelines.
With the current measures, all RT channels worldwide are cut off from YouTube advertising revenue. “Our teams are also working to quickly remove content that violates our policies,” a spokesman said. “Hundreds of channels and thousands of videos have been removed over the past few days, including a number of channels for coordinated fraudulent practices.
