Tag Archives: US International News

YouTube is blocking Russian state media channels worldwide

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YouTube says it will now block channels linked to Russia-backed media outlets worldwide. Last week, it blocked channels from the likes of RT and Sputnik in Europe following an EU directive. The updated policy takes effect immediately, though YouTube's systems will take a little time to fully block the channels.

The service also said "denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events" is not allowed under its Community Guidelines. YouTube is taking down videos about the conflict in Ukraine that violate the rule. On Thursday, Twitter and Facebook removed posts from Russia's embassy in the UK that denied the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine.

YouTube has also deleted more than 1,000 channels and over 15,000 videos related to Russia's invasion ok Ukraine for violating various policies, such as those on hate speech, misinformation and graphic content. Google stopped all ad sales in Russia last week and it has now paused all YouTube monetization and payments in the country.

YouTube says it may take further action in Russia as the conflict continues. In addition, it's directing users to trusted sources of news regarding the invasion.

Facebook will ‘temporarily’ allow Ukrainians to call for the death of Putin and Russian soldiers

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Facebook is changing a rule that prohibits users from calling for violence in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The change, which was first reported byReuters, allows people in Ukraine and a handful of other countries “to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion.” People in Ukraine, Poland and Russia are also permitted to “call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.”

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement that the company was "temporarily” allowing some posts that in the past would have been taken down under the company’s rules prohibiting inciting violence. He added that the company won’t allow “credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.” The company will also take down specific credible threats against Putin and Lukashenko, according to a memo reported by Reuters.

“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders,’” Stone said. “We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”

Russia has responded to the rule changing, saying that Washington must stop the "extremist activities" of Meta, Reuters has reported. 

The change underscores just how much social media platforms are rushing to adapt their content policies amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Facebook has already taken several steps to limit the influence of Russian state media outlets and took down a network of fake accounts boosting pro-Russia propaganda. The Russian government has responded by banning Facebook.

Update 3/10/2022 2:20 AM ET: The article has been updated with Russia's response to Meta's new rule, reported by Reuters.

Riot Games will donate proceeds from in-game passes to Ukraine relief

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Over the weekend, Riot Games announced it would respond to calls from its community to provide aid during the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Until March 12th, the studio will donate all proceeds from the sale of Valorant, Legends of Runterra, Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift battle passes, as well as its new Bee skins in League of Legends, to support humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. Additionally, Riot said it would donate $1 million out of pocket to Doctors Without Borders, the Polish Red Cross and the International Medical Corps.      

"All proceeds from both Riot’s donation and the player fundraiser will directly support humanitarian relief in Ukraine and other affected areas," the company said. The studio joins a growing list of gaming companies that are donating toward humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. On the same day Activision Blizzard said it was halting sales of its games in Russia, the publisher announced it would also match employee donations to relief organizations helping out in the region at a rate of two to one. 

Google disables user-submitted Maps placements in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus

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Google has blocked users from being able to edit Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, according to BuzzFeed News. It's also deleting all user-submitted places and contributions, such as photos, videos and business information in those countries made since February 24th. The tech giant came to the decision "out of an abundance of caution" after people claimed across social networks that the Russian military has been relying on pins created by users on Maps to coordinate air strikes on Ukraine. 

As BuzzFeed News explains, there are posts circulating on websites like Twitter with screenshots of Maps showing pins labeled "“ФЕРМЕРСЬКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО" or Ukrainian for "farm" in Kyiv. People were reportedly claiming that user-made tags saying "farm" or "agriculture" created on February 28th matched the locations of the missile strikes on cities that include Kyiv and Kharkiv. 

Google told the publication, however, that some of the user edits marking locations in Ukraine as "farms" were made a year ago. Even so, it's disabling user contributions to Maps since the Russian invasion had started. A company spokesperson said:

"Out of an abundance of caution, we are removing user contributions like photos, videos, reviews and business information and all user-submitted places from Google Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus since the invasion began, and are temporarily blocking new edits from being made."

A few days ago, the tech giant also removed live traffic data on Maps in Ukraine, most likely to protect the locations of fleeing locals. It blocked the YouTube channels of Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik on across Europe, as well, following the European Commission's announcement that it would ban what it calls "Kremlin's media machine" in the EU. Other tech companies had also responded to calls to limit their services in Russia and to block access to its state-owned media outlets. Facebook took down fake accounts spreading Russian disinformation and restricted RT's and Sputnik's access to its platform, for instance. More recently, Apple halted all product sales in Russia and disabled all traffic data in Ukraine after a request from Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. 

Crypto exchanges refuse to freeze all Russian accounts as Ukraine requested

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Major crypto exchanges including Coinbase and Binance are refusing a request by Ukraine to freeze all Russian accounts, saying that doing so would harm civilians and be counter to their ideals. "To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists,” a Binance spokesperson told CNBC. 

In a tweet, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Federov asked major crypto exchanges to freeze all Russian and Belarus accounts, not just the accounts of sanctioned oligarchs. "It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users," he said. 

Such a move would be in line with US and European Union sanctions against Russian banks and leadership designed to cripple the nation's economy. However, freezing crypto holdings could directly impact regular Russian citizens.

Coinbase said it's already sanctioning any persons or entities in Russia as required by law, but won't go any further. "A unilateral and total ban would punish ordinary Russian citizens who are enduring historic currency destabilization as a result of their government’s aggression against a democratic neighbor," it told Motherboard. Binance similarly stated that it wouldn't "unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts." 

Binance, on the flip side, said it has committed to donate at least $10 million in humanitarian aide to Ukraine and launched a fundraiser with the goal of raising $20 million. The company is also currently under investigation by the US government for alleged money laundering and insider trading.

Other exchanges including KuCoin also said they wouldn't go beyond anything required by law. Kraken exchange CEO Jesse Powell said that such a move would violate the company's "libertarian values." 

One exception is Dmarket, a Ukraine-based platform that allows people to trade NFTs and virtual in-game items. The company said in a tweet that it had cut "all relationships with Russia and Belarus due to the invasion of Ukraine." 

Airbnb offers free housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees

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Airbnb has pledged to work with Ukraine's neighbors to provide free temporary housing to up to 100,000 refugees who are fleeing the country after Russia invaded. Executives are sending letters to the leaders of several European nations — beginning with Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania — to offer their support. More than 300,000 people have left Ukraine since the invasion commenced on Thursday, as Bloomberg notes.

The Airbnb.org nonprofit will work with governments and local organizations to support the needs of refugees in each nation, which may include providing longer-term housing. The housing costs will be covered by Airbnb, along with donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund and hosts. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said that, while partnerships are being forged with nonprofits in European countries, refugees and asylum seekers can seek help from the UN Refugee Agency

The nonprofit last week announced it has facilitated housing for 21,300 Afghan refugees. It said it would house up to 40,000 Afghan refugees on a temporary basis after the Taliban assumed power. Airbnb.org last week set a target of providing free short-term housing to another 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America and other territories. That goal is separate from the pledge to help Ukrainian refugees.

Facebook takes down fake accounts boosting Russian disinformation in Ukraine

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Facebook has taken down a network of fake accounts attempting to spread Russian disinformation in Ukraine. The company said it had removed about 40 accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram that were detected over the last 48 hours. The company has also worked to stop hacking attempts targeting Ukrainians military and government officials on recent days.

In a briefing Sunday night, Meta’s Director of Threat Disruption David Agranovich said the accounts in question hadn’t yet gained a large following when they were identified by the company’s security researchers. He said the accounts had about 4,000 followers and Facebook and about 500 on Instagram.

The fake personas, which were targeting people in Ukraine, were being used to prop up fake news websites that published claims aimed at “undermining the Ukrainian government and boosting the activities of Russian actors,” according to Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s head of security policy. “They would publish claims about the West betraying Ukraine and about Ukraine being a failed state,” Agranovich said. “They also claimed to be based in Kyiv, and posed as news editors, as a former aviation engineer, as the author of a scientific publication.”

The company said in a statement that its investigation into these accounts is ongoing but that it has linked the people behind the fake accounts to a previous takedown of fake accounts in 2020. Facebook security researchers at the time said the activity was traced to “individuals in Russia, the Donbass region in Ukraine and two media organizations in Crimea — NewsFront and SouthFront.”

Separately, Facebook researchers warned that a handful of Ukrainian journalists, military officials and other public figures have been targeted with hacking attempts in recent days. The activity, which Facebook is attributing to an entity known to security researchers as “Ghostwriter,” is also meant to spread disinformation. Facebook said Ghostwriter typically uses phishing attacks to take over email accounts and social media accounts in order to post disinformation while posing as public figures.

“We detected attempts to target people on Facebook, and post YouTube videos portraying Ukrainian troops as weak and surrendering to Russia, including a video claiming to show Ukrainian soldiers surrendering,” Agranovich said. Facebook isn’t speculating who is behind Ghostwriter but other researchers have linked the attacks to Belarus.

The takedowns come as Facebook has tried to contain Russia’s ability to wield disinformation on its platform. Facebook said last week that it was forming a security operations center to monitor the situation in Ukraine and help it respond quickly to threats and misinformation. The social network has also encouraged people in Ukraine to lock down their accounts, and Gleicher said Sunday that Facebook would also be enabling its “lock profile” tool in Russia as well.

At the same time, Russia has said it plans to restrict access to Facebook in the country after the company declined to remove fact checks from Russian state media outlets. Gleicher for now the company hasn’t seen signs that its services are being blocked successfully. “We do believe that we’re still accessible in the country,” he said. He also confirmed that Facebook is “fully blocking the ability of a number of Russian state media entities from broadcasting into Ukraine.”

When asked if Facebook was considering blocking Russian state media globally — following an EU ban on two prominent outlets — Gleicher didn’t rule out the possibility. “Given the situation and how quickly things are moving, we're continuing to evaluate a full range of options.”

Anonymous claims responsibility for Russian government website outages

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On Saturday morning, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its third day, some of the country’s official government websites went down following a series of alleged cyberattacks. Among the sites that aren’t accessible as of the writing of this article include that of the Kremlin and the country’s Ministry of Defence. Several Twitter accounts claiming affiliation with Anonymous say the international hacking collective is behind the attacks.

“Faced with this series of attacks that Ukraine has been suffering from the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, we could not help but support the Ukrainian people,” said one account. At the start of the conflict, the group said it would launch a “cyber war against the Russian government.” However, the Kremlin has denied Anonymous is behind the attacks, according to CNN.

It’s believed Anonymous is also responsible for hacking several Russian state TV channels. People have uploaded videos showing those channels playing Ukrainian music and displaying images of the country’s flag and other nationalistic symbols. 

The collective has also pledged to “keep the Ukrainian people online as best we can,” even as the invasion takes a heavy toll on the country's internet infrastructure. While there hasn’t been a widespread blackout, some parts of Ukraine, particularly those areas where fighting has been the most intense, have seen greatly diminished access. That's something that has prevented people from staying in touch with their loved ones.

Twitter is pausing ads and recommendations in Ukraine and Russia

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Twitter has temporarily paused ads in Ukraine and Russia, one of several steps the company is taking to highlight safety information and minimize “risks associated with the conflict in Ukraine.”

“We’re temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it,” the company wrote in an update that was also shared in Ukrainian. Twitter also said it’s temporarily halting the recommendations feature that surfaces tweets from accounts users’ don’t follow in their home timelines in order to “reduce the spread of abusive content.”

Twitter didn’t indicate how long these measures would be in place, but said it was part of its ongoing work to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We’re actively monitoring for risks associated with the conflict in Ukraine, including identifying and disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information,” the company said.

The company added that it’s directing users to Moments and Events curated by its editorial team in order to provide additional context about what’s happening in Ukraine. Researchers have warned that misinformation and disinformation about Ukraine will continue to flood social media platforms. 

Twitter said it’s also working to keep “high-profile accounts” safe from hacking attempts. “We’re actively monitoring vulnerable high-profile accounts, including journalists, activists, and government officials and agencies to mitigate any attempts at a targeted takeover or manipulation.” The company’s move comes one day after Facebook announced it was enabling its one-click “lock profile” tool for people in Ukraine to help users there safeguard their personal information.

US and Britain blame Russia for cyberattacks on Ukraine’s websites

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Russia is responsible for the cyberattacks that took down the websites for Ukraine's government agencies and major banks back in January, according to The White House. Anne Neuberger, the administration's deputy national security adviser, said the government has "technical information that links the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU" to the hacks. Neuberger added that "GRU infrastructure was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine based IP addresses and domains."

According to AP and Reuters, Britain has also publicly attributed the incident to Russia, saying that the country's GRU military intelligence agency is almost certainly involved. While the attacks managed to take down the targeted Ukrainian websites, Neuberger said they had "limited impact," thanks to the the country's officials that quickly secured and restored them. 

Ukraine's defense and foreign ministries were among the affected websites, and a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish left by the attackers on the latter translated to: "Ukrainians! All your personal data has been uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore them." The message also referenced the "historical land" and showed crossed-out versions of the Ukraine map and flag. 

The Ukrainian Information Ministry said back then that there were early indications Russia carried out the attacks. In addition, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy also suggested that references to Ukrainian ultra-nationalist groups were merely an attempt by the Russians to mask their footprint. 

Neuberger said the White House is publicly calling out Kremlin, because "[t]he global community must be prepared to shine a light on malicious cyber activity and hold actors accountable for any and all disruptive or destructive cyber activity." Although the attacks had "limited impact," the White House believes Russia could carry out more disruptive activities in the future followed by an invasion of Ukraine. President Biden has announced on Friday that the US has obtained intelligence showing that Russia's Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine in the coming days.