Let’s break down YouTube’s policy:
1. All Russian state-sponsored media channels are banned. To a shocking degree, Russian state media (increasingly, the only kind of media left in Russia) are emanations straight from the insane and genocidal mind of just one man, Vladimir Putin. YouTube has no obligation to lend its bandwidth to promoting his interests. So, they’re gone.
2. “Denying, minimizing, or trivializing well-documented violent events.” In other words, scoffing at clear evidence of war crimes — of maternity hospitals being bombed, for instance — or suggesting it’s all crisis actors, or doctored footage from a videogame, etc. That’s the criteria for a violation. Part of Putin’s gameplan is to convince the Russian public that a war isn’t happening in Ukraine, or if a war is happening, then it’s not serious, or if it is serious, then it’s Ukrainians firing upon themselves. Some fraction of gullible idiots both inside and outside Russia will swallow such illogical Putinist swill with no issues. For the more intelligent among us, the propaganda works differently — it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make sense, the idea is to flood the zone with disinformation until people throw up their hands in confusion and decide nothing’s real and even if it sounds bad, nothing can be done to change it. On Imgflip politics stream, you’ll find trolls pushing those exact narratives. On YouTube, all of that nonsense is gone.
3. “The company also said it would remove others’ videos that violate the policy.” In other words, you can’t simply circumvent the policy by reblogging Putinist content from a non-Russian media account. If it’s a violation, it doesn’t matter who posts it. All that is gone too.
It’s a tidy, well-thought out policy for stopping YouTube’s users from being exposed to Putinist lies while trying to learn about what’s happening in Ukraine, and it’s in line with the kinds of policies we have here on PoliticsTOO.
