Adding to Russia’s growing censorship list is Google News. Google confirmed the possible interference when reports started coming in that Russians were encountering problems accessing its news aggregator services. This follows an earlier report by Interfax that said that Google’s service has been blocked by Russia’s internet censor, Roskomnadzor.

According to a Google spokesperson:

“We’ve confirmed that some people are having difficulty accessing the Google News app and website in Russia and that this is not due to any technical issues on our end.”

Silencing Big G

It all seemingly began last week when Roskomnadzor threatened Google – claiming that YouTube ads were supposedly being used to facilitate “information attacks” that threatened Russian citizens. The Roskomnadzor when on as far as to even accused Google of engaging in ‘act of terrorism’.

In recent weeks, as the war in Ukraine rages on, the Kremlin has been tightening local speech censorship, including bypassing a law that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison for anyone found spreading “false” info about the Russian military. The Kremlin’s tirade on freedom of speech has made it increasingly risky for Russian companies to generally engage in anything related to news information. This makes it even more important for Russians to be able to access outside information sources that aren’t being filtered by the regime. In case you’re a bit behind on recent news, over the last couple of weeks, Russia has been blocking various Western social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

In response to these developments, Reuters recently reported that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, tweaked its ads policy and will no longer allow ads to be served via its network, along with content that seeks to undermine, in any shape or form, the war in Ukraine. Existing Google ads and monetization policies do already place certain restrictions to prevent ads from running alongside dangerous or harmful content, with certain prohibitions like:

  • Content that incites violence and disparages or promotes hate against a group of people.

  • Content that denies the existence of tragic events or accuses victims of a tragedy of being crisis actors.

Google explains that this policy update will help clarify and even expand existing enforcement on content related to the conflict in Ukraine. Google further notes that it has a global sensitive event in place for ads that automatically block ads that aim to take advantage of the Ukraine crisis.

The Wrap

Google is taking a strategic gamble here by seemingly ‘appealing’ to Russia by limiting how ads can be targeted around the crisis in Ukraine, while simultaneously offsetting the risk of critical blowback. Clearly, operating in Russia is becoming an increasingly difficult endeavor for Western platforms, regardless of whether or not they’ve been officially ‘blocked’.

When it comes to ad sales, Google has confirmed that it has also paused its ad sales in Russia, in hopes of diminishing market exposure, but continues to allow Russian advertisers to use its tools and serve ads outside of Russia. Google had to eventually suspend its billing to help impose Western sanctions on Russian banks. In short, the entire thing is one ugly mess and all of us just want it done and gone. As the rest of the world continues to pressure Russia into calling its invasion a day, hopefully its government sees enough reason to realize that this will only end badly for them should they continue going down their current path.

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Sources 

https://tcrn.ch/3DmS0Bp