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Facebook and YouTube Block RT, Other Russian Channels From Earning Ad Dollars (usnews.com) 65

Reuters reports: YouTube on Saturday barred Russian state-owned media outlet RT and other Russian channels from receiving money for advertisements that run with their videos, similar to a move by Facebook, after the invasion of Ukraine.

Citing "extraordinary circumstances," YouTube said in a statement that it was "pausing a number of channels' ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions." Ad placement is largely controlled by YouTube. Videos from the affected channels also will come up less often in recommendations, YouTube spokesperson Farshad Shadloo said.

He added that RT and several other channels would no longer be accessible in Ukraine due to "a government request...." YouTube previously has said that it does not treat state-funded media channels that comply with its rules any differently than other channels when it comes to sharing ad revenue.

Meta Platforms Inc, owner of Facebook, on Friday barred Russian state media from running ads or generating revenue from ads on its services anywhere in the world.

CNN's Ukraine-Russia updates point out that YouTube's actions follow a warning letter to YouTube's parent company Alphabet on Friday by Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner. "Warner said his staff was able to find instances of RT's monetization on YouTube, and that he had alerted the Departments of Justice and Treasury to a report about YouTube allowing sanctioned entities to monetize on YouTube as well. "
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Facebook and YouTube Block RT, Other Russian Channels From Earning Ad Dollars

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  • by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Saturday February 26, 2022 @09:51PM (#62307561)
    Cancel-culture, am-I-right? Geez, snowflakes...you send 150,000 troops to invade a sovereign country and the communist politically correct forces of Meta/Alphabet cancel you. Is there no such thing as free speech any more?!?!? Someone needs to make a law to prevent social media companies from censoring people based on their views...particularly if Ukraine is yours or not!!!
    • Cancel-culture, am-I-right? Geez, snowflakes...you send 150,000 troops to invade a sovereign country and the communist politically correct forces of Meta/Alphabet cancel you. Is there no such thing as free speech any more?!?!? Someone needs to make a law to prevent social media companies from censoring people based on their views...particularly if Ukraine is yours or not!!!

      I guess the soviet invasion goes against their narrative.

      But note that they didn't shut those outlets down, just removed their ad revenue.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by sinij ( 911942 )
        Clearly, carpet-bombing Kyiv is nowhere near as bad as discussing ivermectin.
        • Oh come the fuck on. At least be intellectually honest about it.
          It's not for "discussing ivermectin," it's for spreading dangerous misinformation as to the efficacy of ivermectin, often along side misinformation about the vaccines giving you ball cancer, or otherwise somehow impacting your fragile erectile capacity.
      • Advertisers won’t want their stuff associated with RT or the like while this invasion is ongoing. No willing advertisers means no advertisements ran, which also means no ad revenue. The alternative is the “adpocalypse” all over again, so common sense says to do the smart thing straight away.

        In the case of YouTube, sources which are state funded are clearly marked and videos regarding controversial topics come with fact pages linking to known safe sources (which can include Wikipedia if
    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      Yes, because unprovoked invasion of a foreign country is exactly the same things as angry rants and mean words.
    • Cancel-culture, am-I-right? Geez, snowflakes...

      I think the Russians have gotten very familiar with snowflakes.

      • I think the real snowflakes have become the witting or unwitting fifth column for the Russians, along with their Snowflake in Chief Donald Trump

    • Cancel-culture, am-I-right?

      No one is being canceled. YouTube is just shutting off the money flow.

      Russia should have a right to express its viewpoint. Dialog is good.

      Russia doesn't have a right to profit from Google's infrastructure.

    • But it's okay for Putin to invade Ukraine because it's far more oppressive to use people's preferred pronouns or let trans kids place sports. I'm not even joking this is actually a large part of the narrative coming out of the right wing right now. They don't have any policy that will improve americans' lives so they seize on trans people as a boogeyman.

      Sad thing is it seems to be working. They're winning elections with it. The governor of Virginia won his election by running on anti-trans and critical
    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Rather dark humor, but today's scan for Funny is coming up quite dry...

    • Excellent. Thank you.

  • That'll show them:)
  • I mean I understand shutting down these services because of revenge/fear but it leaves the minority population or maybe the major majority, I don't know the situation, without a voice.

    Not sure this is the right approach.

    • I thought the situation was that they are still on YouTube, just not making money any more. Citation otherwise?

      • Taking away someones income is pretty oppressing to me.

        • by sinij ( 911942 )

          Taking away someones income is pretty oppressing to me.

          Theses are quasi-state channels. I am sure they still get their now-worthless Russian ruble salaries to push KGB's PR.

        • by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Well then what do you think the right approach is, asking the Russians nicely to stop? At least the Russians who are losing their incomes still have their nation intact and don't have foreigners killing their children.

        • if I let you open a shop in my mall and you break your lease I can evict you without being oppressive at all. You shouldn't have broken the lease or alternatively you should have chosen any place else by my mall to open your sop.

    • RT doesn't speak for the minority, unless that was a fucking jedi-level joke about Russia's elections.
    • Russian media doesn't even provide minority views, only views of Putin.
  • by bferrell ( 253291 ) on Saturday February 26, 2022 @10:02PM (#62307589) Homepage Journal

    SHUT
    THEM
    DOWN

    • SHUT
      THEM
      DOWN

      No, Demonetization is good, but Russia's voice should not be silenced.

      In a time of crisis, shutting down communication is the worst thing you can do.

      • No, Demonetization is good, but Russia's voice should not be silenced.
        In a time of crisis, shutting down communication is the worst thing you can do.

        Easy going, snowflake, Russia is still connected to the outside world on the internet. Google not giving the free hosting is not silencing them. They can and do host themselves as well. And you have to be a particular kind of tool to refer to blatant state propaganda during an invasion as "communication in a time of crisis".

    • So... devil's advocate here. Did the US found the weapons of mass destruction yet? You know, the ones that were hidden in Iraq and was the main reason to invade it? Guys, yes, Russia is on another level, but US is no saint.
  • Who needs law enforcement.
  • hypocracy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by iluvcrap2000 ( 9417277 ) on Saturday February 26, 2022 @11:23PM (#62307715)
    What a load of hypocracy from these platforms. They could easily Block those channels, but only prevent them for earning money. While other channels that stand up for people rights and speak the TRUTH Get blocked from earning money, Because the platform don't like what they're saying.
    • Yea it's fairly telling that they only took this measure on the 3rd day of the assault.

    • What a load of hypocracy from these platforms.

      The red squiggly line under the word means you need to look at your dictionary before trying to use it.

      They could easily Block those channels, but only prevent them for earning money.

      They prevent them from earning money so they don't finance evil. They can't prevent them from getting their message out, so they might as well keep the bulk of viewers going where they won't get paid for plays.

      While other channels that stand up for people rights and speak the TRUTH Get blocked from earning money, Because the platform don't like what they're saying.

      Yeah, by all means, complain about that. But why complain about this? The two things are not the same. This is in fact the opposite of that.

  • That really won't do much. Mainly since I've already blocked RT 'News'. And Facebook.

  • Are they stopping the showing of ads, or just the money from them (thus putting the money in Alphabet's pockets)? If the former, we may have found a loophole to lessen the ad plague on the 'net.

The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.

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