YouTube removes more than 9,000 channels relating to the Ukraine war. YouTube takes ‘unprecedented action’ to address content guideline violations. The action includes 70,000 videos and 9000 channels for violation. These videos include content that referred to the invasion of Ukraine as the ‘’Liberation Mission.’’
Popularity in Russia
The video streaming platform YouTube is popular in Russia. Despite hosting content from opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny, YouTube did not shut down the content. Pro-Kremlin content has already broken guidelines, however, YouTube has been able to operate in Russia.
Since the Russian-Ukraine conflict began in February, YouTube has taken down channels including journalist Vladimir Solovyov.
YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, said: “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.”
He gave an interview to the Guardian and he added that YouTube’s new emerging content on the conflict has received more than 40m views in Ukraine alone.
Accurate, High quality and Credible information on YouTube
“The first and probably most paramount responsibility is making sure that people who are looking for information about this event. They can get accurate, high-quality, credible information on YouTube,” he said. “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 did not provide a breakdown of the taken-down content. The content includes videos and channels but Mohan said much of it represented Kremlin narratives about the invasion. “I don’t have the specific numbers, but you can imagine a lot of it being the narratives that are coming from the Russian government, or Russian actors on behalf of the Russian government,” he said.
