Google said Monday it was completely disabling AdSense accounts in Russia. The company said it would no longer be able to make payments to users of its advertising services in the country.
Google AdSense is a program that matches ads to a website based on its content and users. It allows for relatively easy earning from ads, including those displayed on YouTube, which are provided and managed by an American company. Both large publishers and owners of small sites can join it. However, not in Russia.
A Google spokesperson said that “due to ongoing developments in Russia, we will no longer be able to make payments to AdSense accounts in Russia that may have continued to earn from traffic originating outside of Russia,” Reuters reported. “As a result, we will deactivate these accounts starting in August 2024,” it said.
Retaliation for YouTube's blow?
Reuters reports that a message was sent to active accounts earlier informing them of the deactivation. “Your July earnings will be paid out around August 21-26, provided you have no active holds and meet minimum payment thresholds,” the message reads.
Google did not specify what events led to this decision, but as Reuters recalls Russia recently restricted YouTube's data transfer speedwhich belongs to Google.
Reuters reports that Russian lawmakers blame the slowdown on the lack of Google equipment upgrades in the country since the invasion. Ukraine in 2022, which the company and technology experts deny.
Google has been under pressure in Russia for several years, particularly for failing to remove content that Moscow considers illegal. Until now, YouTube has been a “bastion of free speech on the Internet,” as Reuters puts it. Russia suppresses independent Russian-language media.
Russia's Problems with Google
The American company stopped showing ads to users in Russia in March 2022 and stopped monetizing content that was pro-Russian in tone, such as denying Russian war crimes or spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda. It blocked more than a thousand YouTube channels, including state-sponsored news sites, and more than 5.5 million videos.
Lawmaker Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the Russian parliamentary committee on information policy, accused Google of supporting the division of the online space into “us” and “them.” “Google continues to segregate citizens by nationality, completely cutting off the ability of Russians to monetize their content,” Gorelkin wrote online.
In March, Russia passed a law banning all advertising in publications, including YouTube channels, by “foreign agents,” as authorities have dubbed anti-Kremlin politicians, activists and media outlets.
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