Google shuts down its advertising machine in Russia

The sanctions continue to strengthen on the side of Google, which has announced that it will suspend all of its advertising activity in Russia.

Relations between Google and Moscow are increasingly strained. In a context where each sanction responds to another, the Russian Internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, has already slowed down the activity of Twitter or Facebook on its soil, but the gendarme also demanded from the Mountain View firm that stops running ads displaying what he believes to be false information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This summons angered Google.

Google, stung, makes a radical decision

Thursday evening, Google responded to this injunction by announcing an extremely rare measure. The American giant has decided to suspend all of its online advertising activity in Russia. This drastic measure concerns both Search and YouTube and the Google Ads and AdSense platforms, which allow the distribution of advertisements.

” Given the extraordinary circumstances, we are suspending Google Ads in Russia “, explains the company. ” The situation is changing rapidly and we will communicate again if necessary. “, she adds.

Google took this decision in reaction to the Russian position, but above all because it does not want companies and advertisers to take advantage of the crisis to generate profits using advertisements. The Roskomnadzor had notably accused YouTube of carrying out disinformation advertising campaigns on the platform among Russian citizens. The search engine company had already taken several symbolic decisions in recent days in response to the war in Ukraine.

More and more sanctions, and digital actors who become actors in the conflict

In recent days, Google has gradually intensified its sanctions in Russia. The company had previously ended the monetization of content published by RT, Sputnik and other Moscow-funded media, a measure valid throughout Europe. Applications from these media were then removed from the Play Store, Google’s application store, before the YouTube channels of RT and Sputnik were closed.

Russian state-funded media are also private, since Tuesday 1^er March, from Google News, which no longer displays their content. Google is introducing these measures as part of the fight against disinformation, and also to comply with the will of the authorities of the European Union.

Google nevertheless wants to remain cautious in its behavior with Russia, where the company employs a hundred people. Especially in a context where the big names in digital seem to become, voluntarily or in spite of themselves, actors in a conflict on a planetary scale.

Source: NY Times