Starting yesterday, Google online advertisements don’t work in Russia. This ban refers to search, YouTube, and outside publishing partners.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made the West consolidate. Apart from a number of economical sanctions, many top brands decided to stop either operating in Russia or withdrawing from this market. In this sense, Google’s moves are not accidental. Moreover, before this, Twitter and Snap stop selling online advertisements in Russia as well.
No Google Online Advertisements In Russia
“In light of the extraordinary circumstances, we’re pausing Google ads in Russia,” the company said in a statement. “The situation is evolving quickly, and we will continue to share updates when appropriate.”
Prior to this, Google banned Russian state-funded media from buying or selling ads through its technology. Other than that, Google “activated” some key points in its policy that refer to marketing actions related to the war. Of course, there are some exceptions such as protest or anti-war ads.
Separately, Google revealed that Russia’s state regulator Roskomnadzor had ordered YouTube to remove “false political information to avoid misleading Russian viewers.” It also ordered Google to stop showing ads that contain inaccurate information about Russian casualties and Ukrainian civilian casualties.
Russia in the past has imposed a fine of 7.2 bln rubles ($98 mln) on Google for illegal content.
Not Only Google
A few days ago, we also informed you that Google had temporarily disabled the live traffic features of Google Maps in Ukraine. But unlike the sanctions against Russia, this action is aiming to protect users’ safety.
Generally talking, the list of brands that have stopped cooperating with Russia is too long. And not surprisingly, it’s getting longer with every single day. At the moment, INTEL and AMD stop selling processors to Russia, Hollywood studios stop film releases in Russia, Apple stops selling its products in Russia, etc.
Recently, we have been talking about how the Russian invasion of Ukraine will affect the global tech industry. According to that analysis, Russia is one of the largest producers of nickel ore. The latter is a key material for electric vehicle batteries. This simply means, in the near future, prices for electric vehicles will increase significantly. This will also cause supply chain instability.
In its turn, Ukraine supplies the U.S. with more than 90% of its semiconductor-grade neon gas. It’s essential for lasers used in chip manufacturing. But what’s worse, neon gas is a by-product of Russia’s steel industry and is purified in Ukraine.
