Variety reported that the company has shut down its Moscow operations in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A new Russian law requires foreign tech companies with over 500,000 users to have an office in the nation by 2022. The law is new and most of the companies have yet to comply. Apple and TikTok have opened offices in Russia.
The service will still be available in Russia, according to a statement provided to Variety.
Both Sputnik News and the Kremlin-funded news outlets will be removed from the platform. Critics say that both outlets are used for propaganda by the Russian government. Canada and the EU have both banned Russian state programming in recent days, and both outlets are under investigation in the UK.
It is easy to see Kremlin-backed outlets in the US. The National Association of Broadcasters called for US broadcasters to stop airing Sputnik News, but so far only DirectTV and Roku have complied. Both Apple and Google have removed their apps from these outlets.
Meta, TikTok and YouTube are just demoting or downranking Russian state-backed channels in the United States, while banning them in the European Union. Users can go to the pages themselves if they want to, but Meta has stopped recommending the channels in the feeds.
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