Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor banned Thursday US tech giant Google from advertising its services, accusing YouTube of spreading “fake news” about its military campaign in Ukraine.
The legislation that Russia has passed after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 made the dissemination of false information about its troops a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison
According to Roskomnadzor, YouTube is one of the key platforms that are disseminating fake news on Russia’s ‘special military operation’, as Moscow calls the invasion of Ukraine, discrediting Russian troops in the process, and has violated Russian laws in more than one occasion.
On top of Google’s blocking of Russian state-owned media – RT, TASS, and Sputnik – and other Russian media sites, the watchdog accused YouTube of not deleting more than 12,000 pages and videos declared extremist by Russia.
Namely, the platform refused to tackle information on Ukraine’s controversial nationalist Azov battalion fighting in Mariupol and on other Ukrainian far-right organizations.
Roskomnadzor has also found that the video hosting platform has disseminated over 60 cases of discrimination against the Russian government, Russian media outlets, public and sports organizations as well as individuals.
The watchdog pointed out that it has now decided to introduce coercion measures to deal with the issue, including the ban on the distribution of advertising for Google LLC and its information resources.
According to the regulator, the ban will be in effect until Google takes all the necessary steps to completely comply with Russian law.
Russian citizens are also warned against using Google search engines since it’ll be considered a breach of legislation.
Fears are mounting that Google could be next in line for a ban since Moscow has moved to block access to non-state media and information resources after previously accusing Google of being anti-Russian and limiting access to Google News app and website.
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