In a further Ukraine war development linked to Google, Reuters reported yesterday that parent entity Alphabet has tweaked its ads policy — and will no longer allow ads to be served via its network (and across its web properties, including YouTube) alongside content that seeks to exploit, dismiss or condone the war in Ukraine.
Google confirmed a change without offering much detail — and initially just reiterating its earlier statement:
We can confirm that we’re taking additional steps to clarify, and in some instances expand our monetization guidelines as they relate to the war in Ukraine. This builds on our current restrictions on Russian state-funded media, as well as our ongoing enforcement against content that incites violence or denies the occurrence of tragic events.
Reuters’ report also cited an email to publishers it had reviewed in which Google gave an example of the policy clarification — saying ads would not run alongside “claims that imply victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim blaming, such as claims that Ukraine is committing genocide or deliberately attacking its own citizens”.
Existing Google ads & monetization policies do already place restrictions that are intended to prevent ads from running alongside dangerous or harmful content — such as a Dangerous or derogatory content which strictly prohibits:
- Content that incites violence and disparages or promotes hate against a group of people.
- Content that denies the existence of tragic events or accuses victims of a tragedy of being crisis actors.
According to Google, the latest update to the ads policy will help clarify and, in some instances, expand existing enforcement on content related to the Ukraine conflict.
It further noted that it has a global sensitive event in place for ads — which blocks ads that are related to the conflict and seek to take advantage of the situation.
Given Roskomnadzor’s recent threat to Google was centered on YouTube ads, the timing of this policy clarification and enforcement expansion looks interesting.
Google may be hoping to appease Russia (and avoid a YouTube block) by limiting how ads can be targeted around the Ukraine war — while offsetting the risk of any critical blowback, i.e. if it were to be accused of bowing to a Kremlin censorship mandate, by selectively emphasizing an example that runs counter to Russian propaganda (videos featuring victim blaming of Ukrainians).
It’s clear that operating in and around Russia is increasingly challenging for Western platforms even when they haven’t been officially blocked by Russia.
On the ad sales front, Google recently announced it was pausing its own ad sales inside Russia, for example, in another step to limit exposure to the market — although it initially continued to allow Russian advertisers to use its tools to serve ads outside Russia. Those ad sales were also subsequently suspended when Google was forced to pause billing for its Play mobile app store in Russia and payment-based YouTube services — a development it blamed on Western sanctions on Russian banks.
Earlier this month, the European Union also applied expansive sanctions to Russian state-affiliated media channels, RT and Sputnik, legally banning distributing their content — including online.
That led to platforms like YouTube implementing blocks on the channels; initially only EU geoblocks — but that was later expanded by Google to a global block on Russia state-affiliated media on YouTube. (However Google does not appear to have globally blocked RT and Sputnik’s apps on its Play Store; choosing instead to only limiting their access in Europe.)
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