Social media platforms prevent Russian-backed media from earning ad revenue

Social media platforms are preventing Russian-backed media from earning ad revenue as Russia continues its assault on Ukraine. 

The head of security policy at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced Friday night that Russian state media would not be able to earn money from ads on the company’s platforms.

“We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world,” Nathaniel Gleicher tweeted. “We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.”

Following the move, YouTube on Saturday said Russian channels, including state-owned network RT, would be barred from receiving money from ads on its platform, Reuters reported.

YouTube is “pausing a number of channels’ ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions,” the company said, according to Reuters.

Twitter, meanwhile, said it was suspending ads in Ukraine and Russia amid the conflict. 

“We’re temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it,” Twitter Safety tweeted Friday. 

This comes as experts have said that Russian leaders and state-backed media are working to spread disinformation and propaganda amid the country’s invasion into Ukraine, according to NBC News.

Facebook previously announced on Thursday that it was ramping up efforts to monitor posts and provide users with the ability to lock their profiles to private as “an extra layer of privacy and security” in response to the military conflict.

Gleicher also said Saturday that Meta was rolling out additional security feature on Facebook.

“In addition to rolling out Locked Profiles in Ukraine, we have also temporarily removed the ability to view and search the ‘Friends’ list for Facebook accounts in Ukraine to help protect people from being targeted,” he wrote on Twitter.