DISINFO: Removal of YouTube accounts from LNR and DNR violates freedom of information
SUMMARY
The recent removal by some social media platforms of accounts run by Moscow-backed territories in Eastern Ukraine is a violation of the UN-backed right for freedom of information.
RESPONSE
This is an unsubstantiated claim.
In reality, these accounts are disseminating disinformation, spreading false claims and propagating violence against Ukraine. Some of the blocked accounts are run by information facilities and police forces in the Moscow-backed territories of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. This decision has nothing to do with clamping down on the right for freedom of information. YouTube terminated them for violating its Community Guidelines, which ban, among other things, hate speech.
Read a case about Russia’s closing Deutsche Welle's bureau in Moscow because of its alleged involvement in NATO propaganda and an article about pro-Kremlin media stoking tensions around Ukraine.