This week, YouTube officially confirmed the complete removal of around 600 videos that advertised the Russian plant Alabuga and contained recruitment content. This content was broadcast on hundreds of channels with a total reach of over 500 million subscribers.
This week, YouTube officially confirmed the complete removal of around 600 videos that advertised the Russian plant Alabuga and contained recruitment content. This content was broadcast on hundreds of channels with a total reach of over 500 million subscribers.
This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sybiga.
Recall that "Alabuga" is a special economic zone in Tatarstan, Russia, which has actually been transformed into a military plant, where mass production of Shahed attack UAVs has been established.
The factory's production lines employ the labor of teenagers, some as young as 15. In April , YouTube began blocking Russian bloggers for advertising the Alabuga Polytechnic College , which recruited teenagers to collect "shaheeds." TikTok joined the ban in May .
Cleaning up the media space is not limited to removing content. The next step will be to hold accountable and impose sanctions on bloggers who paid to advertise a sanctioned weapons factory to an audience of millions.
"Conscious advertising of a factory that assembles drones that kill Ukrainians is not just a 'content decision.' It has consequences," Andriy Sybiga emphasized.
