As part of the fight against misinformation, the EU wants to prevent Russian state media from being among the results of web searches on Google with their announcements.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has in recent weeks imposed the strictest measures and sanctions Russia has ever targeted. They are also working on suppressing misinformation and exposing myths aimed at Ukraine.
Clarification of sanctions
As part of a broader package of measures, announced on February 27, the Council of the European Union has decided to suspend the distribution of Russian state media for disinformation Russia Today and Sputnik throughout the European Union. These sanctions cover all means of transmission and distribution, such as cables, satellites, IPTV, streaming platforms, websites, and applications, and include the suspension of all relevant licenses, approvals, and distribution agreements.
The EU justifies this move by fighting misinformation, and now they have sent their request to block the Russian state media to the world’s largest Internet search engine, Google. The request, clarified as a clarification of media sanctions, states that the ban on broadcasting for Russian media is comprehensive. It also applies to social networks and Internet companies, which can be a medium for disseminating information from Russian sources.
Complete blockade of the Russian media
Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, for example, immediately submitted to the European plan by banning access to RT and Sputnik, but Google removed them only from YouTube, but not from the search engine. In a new letter, the European Commission explains to them the intentions of its sanctions and the role that search engines play in disseminating misinformation. “If search engines like Google do not remove RT and Sputnik from the results, it would mean that they provide public access to their content, or contribute to access to that content,” the EC writes.
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Accordingly, they instruct Google to remove from the results of its search engine links to the websites of RT and Sputnik, as well as any content of these media, including short text clips, visual elements, and links that may appear in search results for European citizens. union. The ban applies not only to official links to the pages of these media but also to cases where individuals transmit their content, in the form of screenshots and the like. All this, according to the European Commission, must be disabled within Internet search engines.
Google has not officially announced any reaction to this move by the European Commission. Still, if you google “Russia Today”, for example, you will get news that mentions this medium – but not links to it. It appears, therefore, that they acted on the request.
