(Washington) YouTube announced, Saturday, the “suspension” of the possibility of monetization of some Russian channels, including RT, on its platform, due to “exceptional circumstances” in Ukraine.
Posted at 4:00 pm.
YouTube also announced that access to RT (Russia Today) and other Russian channels has been restricted in Ukraine, a country facing a Russian invasion for three days.
Revenue is generated on YouTube by delivering ads shown when watching hosted videos. On Friday, Facebook also said it had banned Russian state media from making money with it on its platform.
“In light of the exceptional circumstances in Ukraine, we are taking a number of measures,” a YouTube spokesperson said.
“Our teams are beginning to suspend the ability of certain channels to monetize on YouTube, including RT channels globally,” he continued.
The video platform also made it clear that recommendations, which redirect users to these channels, would be “extremely limited”.
“In response to a government request, we have restricted access to RT and a number of other channels in Ukraine,” YouTube said.
The platform also said it had removed “hundreds of channels” and “thousands of videos” in recent days, some due to “deceptive practices”, in line with its rules.
In early February, Germany banned RT on its territory, prompting Moscow to close the office of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Moscow.
RT is regularly accused in the West of contributing to disinformation.
Launched in 2005 as Russia Today, RT has grown to be the state-funded Russian channel RT with broadcast stations and websites in multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic.
