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Following the pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Roku has also announced that it will remove the RT channel from its global platform, Engadget reports.
A few days ago, several major platforms announced they are preventing Russian state media from running ads. Meta, Twitter, Google were initiatives. YouTube also said that it won’t allow Russian state media to make money through showing ads.
Roku is taking the same path and removing Russia’s RT channel from its platform. This channel was initially unavailable to European Roku users.
RT and Sputnik are two great Russian-affiliated media that are operating globally. The European Union has also imposed some restrictions on them. RT and Sputnik are said to receive their orders directly from the Russian government and actively promote the country’s propaganda. Back In 2017, the Justice Department made RT register as a foreign agency.
Russian-affiliated media are out of most streaming platforms
Roku is not the only streaming platform that is dropping Russian state media. Previously, Apple, Google, and Meta did so to tighten the grip. The American multichannel video programming distributor DirecTV also dropped Russian channels from its platform.
Although many European and American companies are active in Russia, the Russian government has always sought to pressure these companies to disclose user information or remove certain types of content.
Dates back to December, Google had to pay a $98 million fine to the Russian government over banned content. Apple, Meta, and Twitter also have many similar lawsuits in the Russian courts.
The invasion of Ukraine has become costly for Russian media and firms. Twitter said to label tweets from Russian state media to warn users about possible propaganda and restrict their reach.
Moreover, the GSMA also banned some Russian companies from participating in MWC 2022. If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, chances are more media platforms and organizations will boycott the country.