New Delhi: In the wake of the deepening Russia-Ukraine crisis, Google Maps and Tripadvisor have blocked the ability to post new reviews to some listings in Russia as well as Ukraine and Belarus. Both companies have suspended reviews of the businesses and destinations as Google Maps and Tripadvisor were used to post political statements as reviews by activists, the media has reported.
According to a report published in CNET, Google Maps has blocked all new reviews. A Google spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report: "Due to a recent increase in contributed content on Google Maps related to the war in Ukraine, we've put additional protections in place to monitor and prevent content that violates our policies for Maps, including temporarily blocking new reviews, photos, and videos in the region."
TripAdvisor, meanwhile, was quoted by Business Insider as saying that it is only locking reviews on listings where it noticed upticks in people using reviews to talk about the invasion of Ukraine. A lot of users on the internet are using tech to ensure Russian people are hearing the truth about the Ukraine-Russia conflict. According to a Vice report, a face-swapping app was using push notifications to deliver news to people within Russia.
Meanwhile, Meta (formerly Facebook) has expanded its ban on Russian state media outlets such as RT News and Russian news agency Sputnik globally. Meta has imposed a ban on its platforms Facebook and Instagram globally to stop the flow of misinformation amid the deepening Russia-Ukraine crisis. Meta has announced to demote content from Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts from Russian state-controlled media outlets and make them harder to find across our platforms globally.
Facebook parent Meta has also announced rolling out encrypted Instagram DMs in Ukraine and Russia amid the ongoing crisis. The social networking giant is attempting to clamp down on Russian propaganda globally amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict by demoting all Russian state media across its platforms. Twitter has also announced it will label all tweets that contain content from Russian state-affiliated media websites. This is another step from the micro blogging site, in a bid to check the misinformation war around the Russia-Ukraine crisis.