Google announced that it had removed Russian state publishers like Russia Today (RT) from its news features after Russia’s attack on Ukraine and several sanctions against Russia. Google’s President of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, said in a blog post that “in this Ukraine crisis, we are taking extra efforts to stop the spread of any misinformation and disrupt disinformation campaigns online.”

Google already had limited news companies funded by the Russian government from advertising tools and some features on YouTube. RT Deputy Editor-in-Chief Anna Belkina said in a statement that technology companies that have cut our outlet’s distribution have not pointed to “a single grain of evidence that what RT has reported in these days, and continues to report, is not true. This collective appears to be afraid of the presence of any outside voice and losing their historically captured audience that encounters a different perspective,” the statement added.