YouTube has removed over 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels related to the Ukraine-Russia War for violating its guidelines, The Guardian reported on Sunday.
According to the report, YouTube is very popular in Russia and has not been shut down by the government even though it cracks down on pro-Kremlin content and hosts videos from opposition politicians including Alexei Navalny.
The online video sharing and social media giant has removed channels denying aspects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and describing it as a "liberation mission," including channels linked to the Russian Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs.
YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan told The Guardian that it has a policy regarding major violent events that applies to topics like Holocaust denial and denial of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
"What’s happening in Ukraine is a major violent event," he said, "and so we’ve used that policy to take unprecedented action."
Mohan said that YouTube news content about the war has had over 40 million views just in Ukraine.