Russia-Ukraine war: YouTube to block RT and Sputnik across Europe

YouTube is blocking channels connected to Russian state-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe effective immediately, due to the situation in Ukraine, reported Reuters. A YouTube spokesperson issued a statement saying, “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.”

The move comes after YouTube had already announced moves to stop monetisation on RT’s official channel. The move comes as big technology companies find themselves caught in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine war. Meanwhile, Twitter also announced it will put a more prominent label on tweets from Russian-state affiliated media.

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Explained | From preventing access to cutting monetisation, how tech giants have responded to the Russia-Ukraine crisis

Meanwhile, Nathaniel Gleicher, the Head of Security Policy at Meta, Facebook’s parent company, on Monday, tweeted that the company had identified the Ghostwriter hacker group attempting to ‘compromise’ the accounts of prominent military personnel and public figures in Ukraine.

Russia has also tried to order Facebook from fact checking and labelling of content put on four Russian state-owned media organisations. However, Facebook had said it has refused these demands.