Source: The Economic Times
On Sunday, February 27, Alphabet Inc’s Google took a new decision with regard to the Russia-Ukraine development. Google has stepped forward to ban downloads of the top Russian state-owned media channel’s app. They banned all downloads of the RT’s mobile app in Ukraine. This step was taken specifically on the Ukrainian Territory at the request of the Kyiv government. The legal request from the Kyiv government led to the new rule implied by Google.
“In response to a legal request from the Ukrainian government, the RT News app is no longer available for download on Google Play in Ukraine,” a Google spokesperson said on Sunday.
The new move essentially implies that new users trying to download for the first will not be able to successfully download the Russia Today “RT’ News app. This new rule specifically applies in the Ukrainian Territory. Google specified that users currently using the application may still have full access to the app. However, they will not get any further access to the new updates that is pushed by RT (Russia Today).
Additionally, on Saturday, February 26, Alphabet’s Google blocked channels like RT (Russian Today) and other outlets from receiving money. This money in question refers to what comes from ads on their websites. Along with it, from other applications and videos on the platform of Youtube. This move is evidently similar to the step taken by Meta’s Facebook after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
The ban on downloading the RT channel app is only one of the restrictions placed in the course of the invasion. Google also took the steps to disable certain Russian state media channels on Youtube in Ukraine. Google’s Alphabet took the question of the citizen’s safety seriously and disabled the live traffic feature on its Google Map’s tool.
Various social media and video streaming platforms, carried on imposing restrictions on the Russian media. At the same time, tech companies fought to maintain a balance to follow Ukrainian requests and Russian regulations at the same juncture. Tech giants continuously placed restrictions against selling ads, mobile downloading of apps. The new sanctions placed by the US and other nations indicated that the fight between the tech companies and Russia is bound to last for a while.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Google blocks Russia's RT app downloads on Ukrainian territory <a href=”https://t.co/ykAVb5EuqP”>https://t.co/ykAVb5EuqP</a> <a href=”https://t.co/nl5odDbk4h”>pic.twitter.com/nl5odDbk4h</a></p>— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1497963534029889540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>