Roskomnadzor has moved to restrict the distribution of Google advertisements within Russia. The decision follows a series of documented violations by Google services, including YouTube, with the agency citing frequent instances of what it labels discrimination under Russian law.
The agency stated that multiple breaches by the American tech company Google LLC have prompted coercive measures of both informational and economic nature. Six Google services were singled out as potential violators of Russian regulations: the search engine, Google Play, YouTube, YouTube Music, Google Chat, and Gmail.
According to Roskomnadzor, information systems should clearly communicate to users that Google is not in compliance with Russian law. Advertising of Google and its information sources as an advertising object should also be prohibited until compliance is achieved.
The measures are described as temporary and will stay in effect until Google addresses the alleged legal violations and aligns its practices with Russian requirements, as reported by the agency.
Since April 2020, Roskomnadzor has identified roughly 60 incidents of content discrimination involving Russian media, government, public, and sports organizations on Google-owned YouTube, according to the regulator.
In early April, YouTube confirmed that a video featuring Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, dating from March 17, 2022, was blocked. YouTube stated that its community guidelines prohibit content that denies or downplays well-documented acts of violence and that content related to Ukraine that violates this policy is removed.
On April 5, Roskomnadzor asked Google to restore official Russian government agency websites in search results after Google indicated that some pages, including sites of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were not being shown to Russian audiences. Reports also noted the disappearance of a public procurement portal from search results, with users instead receiving links to social media accounts and Wikipedia articles.
Google responded that its search results were not intentionally blocking the Ministry of Defense site but that the page appeared to be blocked by its own systems, limiting discoverability for certain queries.
On April 2, Roskomnadzor announced that YouTube had shown reluctance to meet Russian requirements, with the agency citing more than 10,000 extremist materials uploaded to the service. The warning suggested that continued inaction on removing illegal content and limiting access to Russian channels could lead to broader blocking within the country.
Roskomnadzor also noted ongoing restrictions on Russian media outlets, with 36 accounts representing Russian outlets and public figures blocked. Among the entities affected were Russia Today, Rossiya-24, Sputnik, Zvezda, RBC, NTV, and others.
Earlier in the year, YouTube suspended all monetization for Russian users and subsequently blocked state-funded Russian media channels, including accounts for RT, Sputnik, Rossiya Segodnya, and RBC.