YouTube is at risk after Facebook ban in Russia

(Bloomberg) — Google, one of the few US corporate giants still operating in Russia, is about to lose one of its most important support points in the country as tensions with the Kremlin escalate.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google closed its advertising business in Russia and maintained its popular consumer services, such as YouTube. But the video service has become a major source of tension with the government. YouTube banned a channel from the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to an internal document reviewed by Bloomberg, the latest in a series of measures that Google employees anticipate will cause a shutdown in the country.

Last week, YouTube banned the Russian Army from publishing for seven days after the ministry called its invasion of Ukraine a “liberation mission” in two videos, which the company removed, according to the document. The decision to remove the videos rose to the executive leadership of YouTube, according to the document.

“Our policies prohibit content that denies, minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine,” the company said in an email.

While Google has not closed its office in Russia, the company has quietly begun to remove its staff from the country in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the decisions that asked not to be identified due to security concerns. A Google spokesman declined to comment.

Since unleashing his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has censored the independent press in the country for the sake of controlling information about the war, and punishes citizens who oppose the government's narrative of the invasion. It has also attacked American social media companies. On Monday, Russia banned Facebook and Instagram, services of Meta Platforms Inc., and called them “extremist” organizations, effectively criminalizing them. The country has also undermined the performance of the Twitter app Inc.

Putin's tactic has been to paint American social media as extreme forces that threaten Russian society. The government's first threat against YouTube since the invasion concerned a channel that broadcast former Soviet propaganda, not state media networks.

“Optics are very important,” said Emerson Brooking, a senior member of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Laboratory. “The ban on Instagram and YouTube are very unpopular decisions, unless they are presented in a certain light.”

So far there is no indication that Google's search product is at risk. Google remains the most used search engine in Russia, surpassing the local provider Yandex NV, according to external measurement firms. And YouTube is a popular space for ordinary Russians, as well as Putin advocates and critics, to watch and post videos online.

Original Note:

YouTube at Risk of Russia Ban After Facebook Deemed Illegal (1)

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