Google Halts All Ad Sales in Russia

As the pressure of Russia’s restrictive web laws grows every hour, Alphabet’s Google has decided to suspend any forms of advertising sales in Russia. This measure bans all the ads in search, YouTube, and hundreds of Google’s third-party publishing partners for the Russian segment of the web. Similar measures have been already taken before by Twitter and Snapchat soon after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Extraordinary Circumstances

The short statement of the world’s largest online ad publisher says that the ban of Google Ads in Russia is due to the quickly evolving extraordinary circumstances. Before blocking Ads for the entire country, Google had prohibited Russian state media to sell or buy ads using the platform. Additionally, the company restricted marketing campaigns that target taking financial advantages from the military conflict. Protest and anti-war ads are an exception. 

The wave of anti-war ads was followed by an order from Roscomnadzor (Russia’s communications regulator) to remove all the ads that don’t support the official military casualties of Russia. The second-order told Google to remove all the ads with “false political information” about the war in Ukraine. For example, Russia insists that it conducts a “special military operation” – not a war that we all see. 

For People

The decision to disable ads seems to be a golden means between not letting Putin block YouTube and providing people in Russia with a huge source of information. Google has already paid over 32m roubles of fines, but it’s clear that the Russian gov won’t be that “soft” anymore. Besides, Russia is a huge market for the platform as its users generated $790 million in 2020. What do you think about the latest YouTube measures? What else would you like to offer? You are welcome to express your opinion below and don’t forget to share the news.