YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are restricting state-owned Russian media channels before a likely EU ban, aiming to curtail propaganda during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The EU announced a ban on Sunday, which countries are expected to sign off on Tuesday after a formal proposal.
In the meantime, YouTube owner Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta Platforms and TikTok owner ByteDance have already restricted access to accounts run by Sputnik and Russia Today in the EU.
“We have received requests from a number of governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state-controlled media,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in a tweet.
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Ukrainian fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry vehicle in Kharkiv. AFP -
Refugees from Ukraine rest after arriving at a railway station in Przemysl, Poland. AP -
People walk down 17th June Street in Berlin before a rally against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. AP -
Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kiev and former heavyweight boxing champion, right, and his brother, Wladimir. AP -
Khreshchatyk, Kiev’s main street, lies empty as a curfew comes into effect. AP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation from Kiev. AP -
On February 27, the seventh anniversary of the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, a note stating ‘No to war!’ is placed among flowers on the central Moscow bridge on which he was shot. AFP -
A member of the Ukrainian forces, wearing the Guy Fawkes mask popularised by Anonymous, patrols central Kiev. AFP -
Sviatoslav Yurash, 26, a politician from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, poses with his assault rifle as he patrols Kiev. AFP -
A Ukrainian serviceman and his dog look at smoke from a burning fuel storage depot after a Russian missile attack near Kiev. EPA -
A refugee who fled conflict in Ukraine rests at a railway station after arriving in Zahony, Hungary. AP -
A refugee boy who fled Ukraine cries at the railway station in Zahony, Hungary. AP -
Civil defence members eat during a break at City Hall in Kiev. AP -
An Indian student is embraced by his family at Chennai Airport after returning from Ukraine. EPA -
Smoke is seen rising from behind buildings following bombings in Kiev. Getty -
An armed civil defence woman holds a Kalashnikov assault rifle while patrolling an empty street in Kiev. AP -
A woman fleeing from Ukraine cries as she waits to be taken to a shelter in Zahony, Hungary. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees cross the Romanian border at Siret, northern Romania. EPA -
A residential building damaged by shelling in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Apartments damaged by shelling in Kharkiv. AFP -
A girl protests against Russia's military operation in Ukraine, in front of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv. AFP -
Young women protest in Tbilisi, Georgia with their hands painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Getty -
Supplies for Ukrainian refugees at one of three camps set up at the MoldExpo exhibition center, in Chisinau, Moldova. EPA -
Police detain a demonstrator during a protest against Russia's incursion into Ukraine in St Petersburg. AP -
A man waits at a bus stop in St Petersburg, which has been with a painted in the colours of Ukraine's national flag. EPA -
Russian ground forces approaching Nova Kakhovka, southern Ukraine. AP -
A woman holds her daughter's hand as they arrive by bus from the Polish-Ukrainian border. Getty -
A man drives his car full of food supplies to deliver to the Ukrainian side of the border, where thousands wait to enter Poland. Getty -
Refugees arrive with buses from the Medyka pedestrian border crossing, in Przemsyl, eastern Poland. AFP -
People gather to catch a train and leave Ukraine for neighboring countries at the railway station in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Cars form a line that stretches 35 kilometres from the Shehyni border crossing to Poland as people try to flee Russia's military operation against Ukraine. Reuters -
Helena, right, and her brother Bodia, left, from Lviv, wait at the Medyka border crossing in eastern Poland. AFP -
A Ukrainian soldier walks past debris of a burning military truck, on a street in Kiev. AP -
People run for cover during the shelling on the city of Kiev. AP -
A child refugee who fled the conflict in Ukraine covers her face in the event hall of a hotel offering shelter in Siret, Romania. AP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holding a briefing in Kyiv. He said that Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan have suggested talks with Russia, which 'can only be welcomed'. AFP -
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, at a news conference in the embassy of Ukraine, Washington. AP -
Manchester City footballers wear t-shirts in support of Ukraine before a match. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees arrive in Warsaw by train from Kiev. EPA -
A woman waves a Ukrainian flag during a rally in Times Square, New York City. AFP -
A man sits next to his dogs in an underground car park turned into a bomb shelter during an air raid alert in Kiev. AP -
A woman sleeps on chairs in a Kiev bomb shelter. AP -
A satellite image with overlaid graphics shows military vehicles alongside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Reuters -
A satellite image shows the effects of shelling in open fields along Soborna Street in the north-east suburbs of Kharkiv. Reuters -
A big fire at a petroleum storage depot after a Russian missile attack, in Vasylkiv, near Kiev. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen take positions at a military airbase in the Kyiv region. Reuters
“Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time. We will continue to work closely with governments on this issue.”
YouTube announced on Tuesday morning that it would also block videos on the site, after previously restricting ads on the content. The ban is effective immediately but the company wrote that “it’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up”.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began last Thursday, has prompted a growing number of governments to ask large technology companies to reduce or restrict their services in Russia. Poland and the Baltic states asked Big Tech companies on Sunday to “take a stand” against Russia.
Companies will soon be forced to take down the content, after Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said the EU’s ban on the state-backed media will include broadcasting or platforms sharing RT and Sputnik content.
Microsoft also said it would take steps to reduce users’ exposure to Russian propaganda, including on MSN.com.
“We are removing RT news apps from our Windows app store and further de-ranking these sites’ search results on Bing so that it will only return RT and Sputnik links when a user clearly intends to navigate to those pages,” the company said in a statement. The company will also be banning ads from RT and Sputnik.
