Rossiya Segodnya Considers Google Discover, Google News Restrictions of Its Resources 'Censorship'

It was earlier reported that Google had blocked mobile apps connected to Russia's Sputnik news agency (part of the Rossiya Segodnya media group) from its Play Store across Europe as part of the EU's anti-Russian sanctions imposed over Moscow's military operation in Ukraine.

The Rossiya Segodnya media group has said that Google Discover and Google News have restricted the group's resources online - a move that Rossiya Segodnya considers to be "censorship".

"We believe that the artificial blocking of our materials in the main Google news channels is covert censorship and manipulation of the information agenda", the media group said.

Reuters previously reported that Google had also blocked apps related to Sputnik from its Play Store in Europe. Aside from this, Google targeted the YouTube channels connected to Sputnik across Europe.

Their block is a part of the European Union's sanctions against Russia over Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, launched with the goal of "demilitarising and de-Nazifying Ukraine". The operation was launched after the Donbass People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk requested Russia's help amid the still ongoing shelling of their territories by Ukrainian forces.

Russian state-run media outlets have also been targeted by Instagram and Meta, formerly known as Facebook, with the social media platform restricting access to Sputnik and RT's accounts across the EU.

The manner in which the IT giants targeted Russian media outlets received swift condemnation from the Russian Foreign Ministry, as it accused the Western tech companies of "hostile propaganda activities" against "Russian sources of information".

Russia's media watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that Meta remove the block on Sputnik and RT's Facebook and Instagram accounts in Europe.

The outlets' social media accounts are currently unavailable in a handful of European countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

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