The moves will likely provoke retaliation from Russia, which has already restricted social media services in its country in response to previous measures the companies have taken to curtail the Russian government’s ability to spread misinformation and propaganda about its invasion of Ukraine.
“Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately,” Google Europe said in a tweet. “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.”
State media outlets RT and Sputnik have relied on American social media companies, as well as Chinese-owned TikTok, to gain massive followings and to reach audiences outside Russia’s borders. RT’s Facebook channel has more than 7 million followers, though it’s not clear how many of that 7 million were located in the EU. RT’s YouTube has 4.65 million followers in English, and 5.94 million in Spanish. RT and Sputnik also run prominent television channels and radio stations in several countries.
But Silicon Valley companies have long been reticent to curtail state-owned media outlets, even when they are mouthpieces for a foreign government’s distorted worldview. Instead, they have chosen to label outlets as state media.
At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the companies continued fact-checking individual pieces of content and resisted calls for outright bans.
Misinformation from Russian state-backed media outlets proliferated. State-media outlets have published misleading articles alleging that Ukrainian armed forces attacked civilians or tried to destroy critical infrastructure in separatist regions or in Russia, according to research from the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University. At least 30 articles speculated that Ukraine may have started or is planning to develop nuclear weapons, warning about “what nuclear bombs in the hands of the far right lead to,” or alleging Ukraine’s president Zelensky had a “dangerous nuclear fantasy,” Oxford found. Russian state media has also tried to paint a picture of Ukraine being as associated with far-right organizations and Nazis, though president Zelensky is Jewish.
But the pressure on social media companies to finally use their power as gatekeepers to clamp down on the influence of state media mounted swiftly. First, the Ukrainian government asked the companies to ban the channels within its borders, and the companies complied with the requests.
Then, Russia began to throttle traffic to tech companies services within Russia in retaliation for fact-checking state media, according to Facebook.
On Friday, Facebook and YouTube banned advertising from Russian state backed media, an effort that prevented the companies from earning revenue off content that supported the invasion.
Then on Monday, Facebook and TikTok said that the companies would shut down access to Kremlin-controlled media sites RT and Sputnik in Europe. Facebook’s announcement came in a tweet from its president for global affairs, Nick Clegg. TikTok confirmed its decision to The Washington Post late Monday.
