YouTube Cleans Up 70,000 Videos Containing Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

YouTube has carried out a clean-up of 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels on its platform. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Since Russia decided to invade Ukraine some time ago, YouTube has carried out a clean-up of 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels on its platform.

YouTube's move is based on videos and channels related to the war in Ukraine that violate the company's content guidelines, including a video calling the invasion a liberation mission.

The company said it had removed many of the videos for violating its main policy on violent events, which prohibits content creators from denying or belittling events such as invasions.

However, YouTube did not elaborate on the enforcement actions, including one linked to pro-Kremlin journalist Vladimir Solovyov.

“We have a major violent event policy and that applies to things like denial of major violent events, from the Holocaust to Sandy Hook. And of course, what happened in Ukraine was a major violent event", YouTube's head of product, Neal Mohan, told The Guardian quoted from Engadget, Monday, May 23.

"So we have used that policy to take unprecedented action."

Partly as a result of its actions, YouTube has seen a significant increase in the number of people in Ukraine, Poland, and Russia consuming authoritative content in the conflict. In Ukraine, for example, news content about the invasion has been viewed more than 40 million times.

“The first and perhaps most important responsibility is to ensure that people seeking information about these events can find accurate, high-quality, and credible information on YouTube,” said Mohan.

Of course, this step will be a positive image for YouTube, where they play an important role in preventing the spread of misinformation online.

In Russia alone, YouTube has more than 90 million users, making it the largest single video-sharing platform in the country. The company's actions against Russian-sponsored networks such as RT and Sputnik had a dramatic impact on the organization's ability to spread the Kremlin message.