New Delhi: After Twitter announced it will mark tweets with links to Russian state-backed media, Google-owned video streaming giant YouTube has announced it will block channels connected to Russian state-backed media outlets such as RT and Sputnik across Europe amid the deepening Russia-Ukraine crisis, the media has reported.
"Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately. 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," Google Europe said in a statement on Tuesday.
YouTube is also following the footsteps of social networking giant Facebook's parent company Meta which said it will restrict access to television network RT and news agency Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union. As part of its ongoing efforts amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Meta Platforms Inc (formerly Facebook) on Sunday banned several state-run accounts from Russia from monetising on the platform and from running advertisements from anywhere in the world.
According to Meta's head of global affairs Nick Clegg, the company has banned Russian state media from running ads or monetising on the platform anywhere in the world. According to Yoel Roth, Twitter's Head of Site Integrity, the platform would start labeling links to Russian state-affiliated news sites, such as the English-language Russia Today (RT), national news agency TASS and others and make the affiliation clear. With the labeling on such tweets, if a user tweets a link to a story from RT and TASS a warning box will pop-up it with an orange exclamation point and text: "Stay Informed: This Tweet links to a Russia state-affiliated media website."