Google will no longer allow Russian state media to run ads on its search portal and websites, following a similar decision Saturday by Google-owned YouTube.
“In response to the war in Ukraine, we are pausing Google’s monetization of Russian state-funded media on our platforms. We are actively monitoring new developments and will take further action if necessary,” Google said.
This is a kind of sanction being imposed on Russian-linked media due to a wave of criticism directed at platforms like Google for allowing the monetization of these media to continue despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the other hand, this weekend YouTube said it will temporarily stop the ability of several Russian channels to monetize their content on the platform. You will also be significantly limiting recommendations to those channels.
As the crisis in Ukraine intensifies, social media companies have worked hard to rein in Russian state propaganda and disinformation. A YouTube spokesman said the company had removed hundreds of channels and thousands of videos in recent days.
Google’s move follows a ban announced on Friday by Meta, which limited the ability of Russian state media to publish ads and monetize them on the Meta platform.
For its part, the Russian government took measures to partially restrict access to Facebook in the country after accusing the platform of illegal censorship.
The Russian Ministry of Communications stated that Facebook violated the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, alleging that the social network had taken drastic measures against various media outlets in that country.
Google Maps also blocked two functions in Ukraine that provide information to users in real time.
Google made the change to help keep Ukrainians safe.
Disabled functions include and on Live Traffic Overlay, a feature some researchers have used to monitor the conflict from afar, as well as Live Busyness, a feature that shows how popular a location may be at any given time.
Traffic updates are still available in Ukraine when using Google Maps navigation mode.
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