Google suspends sale of contextual advertising in Russia, including on YouTube

Google on Friday suspended the sale of contextual advertising in Russia, including on YouTube, in connection with the war in Ukraine. It comes days after Google Europe on Tuesday stated that they are blocking YouTube channels connected to Russia’s RT and Sputnik across the continent, effective immediately. 

After Meta, Google also announced that it was banning Russian State Media from running advertisements, and monetisation across all its services including YouTube, as they escalated the Russia-Ukraine war. Earlier, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook echoed similar measures. 

In a statement, Google Europe said on Saturday, "In the light of the extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine, we are taking a number of measures."

"We are suspending the monetization of some YouTube channels, including several Russian channels related to recent sanctions. We will significantly limit the recommendations for these channels. Also in response to a government request, we restricted access to RT and a number of other channels in Ukraine. We will continue to monitor new developments and may take further action," it added.

In a separate message last week, Google had said that the company's threat intelligence teams were searching and disrupting "disinformation campaigns, government-backed hacking and financially motivated abuses, and work with other companies and relevant government agencies to address these threats."

Google services were down in Ukraine

On Thursday, services of tech giant Google are down in war-hit Ukraine, Russia state-affiliated media RT reported quoting local reports. It was also being reported that Gmail is not functioning and Youtube was almost impossible to access.

It is to note that several companies have pulled out of Russia, including Spotify and Netflix. Netflix informed that it has paused all projects and acquisitions in Russia while Spotify shut its office in Russia indefinitely. Big tech giants, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Tietoevry, have either limited access to Russian media to their platforms or pared back product sales.

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