U.S. Senator Mark Warner Urges Tech Companies To Fight Russian Propaganda In Ukraine—Russian Officials Punish Those That Do
https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2022/02/25/us-senator-mark-warner-urges-tech-companies-to-fight-russian-propaganda-in-ukraine-russian-officials-punish-those-that-do/
On Friday, U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Virginia, sent letters to Alphabet, Meta, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok, and Twitter asking the companies to take further action to prevent Russian propaganda operations on their platforms. Warner—who is chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—also pointed out that YouTube continues to allow Russian websites known for spreading propaganda to make money from ads.
“Just yesterday, for instance, my staff was able to find RT, Sputnik and TASS channels’ content specifically focused on the Ukraine conflict to be monetized with YouTube ads – including, somewhat perversely, an ad by a major U.S. government contractor,” Warner wrote in a letter to Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube. “Meanwhile, Google’s wider ad network continues to support influence outlets such as Sputnik and TASS, directing advertising dollars from unwitting U.S. brands like Best Buy, Allbirds, and Progressive to entities whose ties to Russian influence activity has been well-documented for over five years.”
Tech companies that have stepped up their content moderation have faced backlash from the Kremlin. Meta, for example, established a “Special Operations Center” with native Russian and Ukrainian speakers to monitor content in real-time. When it refused to comply with Russian officials’ orders to stop fact-checking and labeling misinformation posted to Facebook by four state-owned media organizations, the government responded by limiting Russian users’ access to the social network.
reply
share