YouTube has removed more than 9,000 channels in connection to the Ukraine war.
The Google-owned website has banned more than 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels posting about the Ukraine over violations of content guidelines -such as material that labelled the invasion by Russian President Vladimir force as a “liberation mission”.
The website’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan told the Guardian newspaper: “We have a major violent events policy and that applies to things like denial of major violent events: everything from the Holocaust to Sandy Hook. And of course, what’s happening in Ukraine is a major violent event. And so we’ve used that policy to take unprecedented action.
Since the start of the conflict in February, Youtube has garnered more than 40 million views for its Ukraine news content and feel their top priority is that information is “accurate, high-quality and credible” on their platform.
Neal said: “The first and probably most paramount responsibility is making sure that people who are looking for information about this event can get accurate, high-quality, credible information on YouTube. The consumption of authoritative channels on our platform has grown significantly, of course in Ukraine, but also in countries surrounding Ukraine, Poland, and also within Russia itself.”
YouTube - which is currently still operating in Russia - is the “largest video-sharing site” in the world’s biggest nation.
Of the decision to remain in the country, - which has been critiqued by opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny - Neal said “YouTube remains the largest video-sharing site up and running in Russia itself, so YouTube is a place where Russian citizens can get uncensored information about the war, including from many of the same authoritative channels that we all have access to outside of the country. We remain an important platform for Russian citizens themselves as this crisis continues to evolve.”
