Big Tech Grapples With Russian State Media, Propaganda

As Russia’s war in Ukraine plays out for the world on social media, big tech platforms are moving to restrict Russian state media from using their platforms to spread propaganda and misinformation.

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After the European Union’s president called for a ban on Russian state media, a wave of tech companies blocked the channels from their platforms.

Google announced that it’s blocking the YouTube channels of those outlets in Europe “effective immediately” but acknowledged “it’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up.” Russia’s RT and Sputnik accounts were also disabled in Europe on China’s TikTok, a video-sharing platform, a company spokesperson confirmed. The actions followed Meta’s announcement that it would bar the state media from its platforms, Instagram and Facebook.

Tech companies have also offered more modest changes in other parts of the world so far: limiting the Kremlin’s reach, labeling more of this content so that people know it originated with the Russian government, and cutting Russian state organs off from whatever ad revenue they were previously making.

The changes are a careful balancing act intended to slow the Kremlin from pumping propaganda into social media feeds without angering Russian officials to the point that they yank their citizens’ access to platforms during a time of war, said Katie Harbath, a former public policy director for Facebook.

“They’re trying to walk this very fine line; they’re doing this dance,” said Harbath, who now serves as director of technology and democracy at the International Republican Institute. “We want to stand up to Russia, but we also don’t want to get shut down in the country. How far can we push this?”