Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, YouTube has so far removed more than 70,000 videos about the conflict, The Guardian reported Sunday. The company told The Guardian it had removed many of the videos for violating its major violent events policy, which prohibits content creators from denying or downplaying events such as the invasion.
YouTube did not abort the enforcement action, but noted that it has suspended about 9,000 channels in the sweep, including one linked to pro-Kremlin journalist Vladimir Solovyov. Some of the videos YouTube has made violate the company’s guidelines by referring to the invasion as a “liberation mission.”
“We have a policy of major violent events and that includes things like denying major violent events: everything from the Holocaust to Sandy Hook. And of course what is happening in Ukraine is a major violent event,” Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, told The Guardian. “And so we’ve used that policy to take unprecedented action.”
As a result of its actions, YouTube has seen a significant increase in the number of people in Ukraine, Poland and Russia consuming “authoritative” content about the conflict. In Ukraine, for example, news content about the invasion has generated more than 40 million views. “The first and probably most important responsibility is to ensure that people seeking information about this event can get accurate, credible, high-quality information on YouTube,” Mohan told The Guardian.
The move underscores the critical role services such as YouTube play in preventing disinformation from spreading online. In Russia alone, YouTube has more than 90 million users, making it the largest video sharing platform in the country. The company’s actions against state-sponsored networks such as RT and Sputnik had a dramatic impact on those organizations’ ability to spread the Kremlin’s message.
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