TASS, February 27. Google has decided to ban Russia’s state media from receiving money for ads, the Reuters news agency said on Sunday.
According to the agency, the tech giant temporarily paused Russia’s state-funded media outlets from placing ads on its services.
Earlier, YouTube confirmed that it had barred some Russian channels from receiving money for ads due to a special military operation in Ukraine. Prior to this, the monetization of Russian media was banned by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.
When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.