YouTube announced on Friday it is immediately blocking access around the world to channels associated with Russian state-funded media, citing a policy barring content that denies or trivializes well-documented violent events, Reuters reported.
YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet Inc's Google, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine now fell under its violent events policy.
"Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events, and we remove content about Russia´s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy," spokesman Farshad Shadloo said, according to Reuters.
"In line with that, effective immediately, we are also blocking YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media, globally," he added.
Large companies around the world have taken action against Russia in recent weeks in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Netflix also announced on Sunday that it is suspending its service in Russia, as did TikTok.
Last week Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced that it would be restricting access to Russian state-controlled media in Europe, including RT and Sputnik.
Meta added that content from Russia state-controlled media would be demoted on Facebook and Instagram, and that links from those outlets would be labeled in order to give “context” to people who do access them.
Music streaming giant Spotify announced it is closing its Russia-based office and removing Russian state-sponsored content from its service.
Sony and Amazon also took actions against Russia this week, with Sony stopping sales of its PlayStation consoles and software in Russia and Amazon suspending access to Prime Video in Russia and halting the shipping of retail orders to customers in both Russia and Belarus.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)