Opening of Google, YouTube Offices in Ukraine to Help Fight Russian Propaganda

During the talks in the United States, representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation are agreeing to open official offices of technology companies in Ukraine to combat Russian disinformation, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov has said.

“We really want a separate Google office and a YouTube office to appear in Ukraine. It seems to me that, given the Russian aggression, content should be moderated in Ukraine. It is very important. Ukrainian content should not be moderated in Russian offices,” the official said.

According to the press service of the ministry, during a meeting with Google Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy Karan Bhatia, the Ukrainian side raised the issue of content recommendations for the home page of Ukrainian YouTube Music and YouTube. Now, our users are offered Russian content on their home pages, which is unacceptable when there is a war in Ukraine.

The minister also noted that representatives of the ministry plan to hold meetings with the management of the international payment systems PayPal and Stripe and the streaming service Netflix to discuss the possible entry of these companies into the Ukrainian market.

Bohdan Marusyak