More than 9000 channels were removed from the platform since February in a push to curtail Russian misinformation over the ongoing war in Ukraine. Neal Mohan, the company's Chief Product Officer, told reporters that the company no longer allows advertising in Russia, but that it likely includes. “We have a major violent events policy and that applies to things like denial of major violent events: everything from the Holocaust to Sandy Hook,” Mohan told The Guardian. “And of course, what’s happening in Ukraine is a major violent event. And so we’ve used that policy to take unprecedented action.” The number of accounts posting raw misinformation has been a problem for YouTube. The Washington Post reported in late March how many accounts are trying to sway public opinion mostly at home, and how often they were getting around YouTube's censors. The videos were taken down after the article was published. According to Mohan, Russians can go to YouTube to get real news about the war in Ukraine that is now into its third month. The account of Navalny, who is currently in jail, is still being used by the media to target Russian viewers. The Kremlin has cut off access to social media sites in Russia. Maksut Shadaev, Russia's minister of digital development, told an educational forum the country was not planning to ban the platform. Next-Level Sound can be experienced. Theater-like sound surrounds you with spatial audio with dynamic head tracking.
Despite blocking Russian state media channels and ending video monetization for most Russian creators in March, the platform is still online in the country. Many social and tech companies have limited Russia's official access to the platform, and some in the big tech sphere like Amazon and Apple have stopped selling their products in the country.
It's a change of pace for big tech companies who have previously kowtowed to Putin, such as when Apple and Google pulled pro-Navalny apps from their app stores in 2021. Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine had close accounts on YouTube before the full-on Russian invasion.
As of January this year, Russia has 99 million individual users on YouTube, making it the fifth biggest pool of users. The second largest social platform in terms of total users is YouTube, with 122 million daily users.
Russian talking points and propaganda have been spread on social platforms.
Last week, there were warnings on official accounts that were false about the conflict. The system for moderation of emergency and conflict content was put in place after months of Russian accounts spreading fake news of the conflict.
Some U.S. politicians and other human rights groups have begged platforms like YouTube to preserve some videos that could be used as evidence of Russian war crimes in international court. There is no public information on whether or not YouTube will create a backup for videos that break the platform's restrictions on violent content.
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