YouTube is now blocking Russian state-funded media worldwide

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After blocking channels in Europe that were funded by the Russian government, YouTube says it will start blocking all channels funded by the Russian government. The company said it would be removing content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that denied, minimized, or trivialized violent events.

At the time of writing, two American Verge staffers were still able to watch live streams from the channel, which is funded in part by the Russian government.

2/ In line with that, we are also now blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally, expanding from across Europe. This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.

— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 11, 2022

European users were not allowed to access Russian state media on several platforms. The Russian government has responded to tech companies' policies by blocking or limiting access to sites. It was announced today that it will be banning the photo-sharing website in the country on March 14th.

While not being able to access content from channels like RT and Sputnik worldwide is an escalation from YouTube, the channels couldn't monetize their videos. The company said in February that Russian state media outlets wouldn't be allowed to run ads on their videos. All ad sales in Russia were paused last week.