Amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, YouTube has paused monetization options for content creators in Russia, according to the Eastern European news outlet NEXTA. The media outlet posted a message directly from the YouTube team, announcing the freeze on creators’ incomes.
Per translation from Yandex, YouTube clarified that videos would no longer be subject to receive revenue from sponsorships, advertisements, superchats, merchandise, or any other form of monetization. The site stated that these new restrictions will not extend to any viewers or creators outside of Russia.
YouTube seems to imply this is hopefully only a temporary freeze for their platform’s Russian creators. The YouTube team states that, as the situation in Ukraine continues to develop, it will continue to share updates with its Russian audiences.
This update comes days after YouTube initially clamped regulations on Russian state-affiliated media. Following a request from the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Information, Alexander Tkachenko, to ban Russian propaganda on the video hosting site, Meta security head Nathaniel Gleicher announced the site’s decision.
With further sanctions being placed on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, more media platforms have begun to follow suit. Recently, Twitch also blocked monetization options and announced it would withhold payments from Russian content creators for the foreseeable future.
YouTube’s decision has been met with an incredibly mixed reaction, with many Twitter users both advocating for and against the platform’s monetization freeze. As the conflict only seems to escalate in Ukraine, more companies have begun to pause operations within Russia, with YouTube only being the latest.
