Facebook and YouTube Ban Russian News Channels RT and Sputnik in Europe
- Laurent Giret
- Mar 01, 2022
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Facebook and YouTube have banned the Russian news channels RT and Sputnik in Europe in response to Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine. Both companies have been pressured by governments and the European Union to take action against the Russia-controlled media outlets, and Meta first blocked RT and Sputnik on Facebook and Instagram yesterday.
“We have received requests from a number of Governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state controlled media. Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time,” explained Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs at Meta.
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After blocking monetization features on RT and other Russian news YouTube channels yesterday, the company finally followed Meta’s footsteps today. “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,” the company announced earlier today.
While it’s not as big as YouTube or Meta, TikTok has also banned RT and Sputnik on its platform. As for Microsoft, the company has stopped displaying RT and Sputnik content on Microsoft Start and MSN.com, and it has also de-ranked these sites’ search results on Bing. The RT app for Windows has also been removed from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and Windows 11.