Once Google Adsense pays out the credit to residents of the Russian Federation, it expires. Google has informed its partners in the country who have previously earned money through Adsense from their online content, including YouTube videos. The background is that the Russian Federation continues its war of aggression against Ukraine.
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Following the Russian attack on February 24, 2022, Google sent monetary and in-kind donations to Ukraine. Soon after, Google stopped providing all online advertising in Russia and for Russian advertisers worldwide. This greatly reduced the distribution of the AdSense program in the world’s largest country. AdSense automatically connects online content providers with advertisers who want to advertise on thematically relevant content. The data company passes on a portion of the money advertisers pay Google to the providers.
Of course, this source of money doesn’t exist without advertising. However, the flow of funds to Russian participants did not stop completely, as their online offers sometimes reach abroad as well. And for Russian AdSense users set up before March 2022, Google has continued to serve ads from non-Russian advertisers that used to appear outside the country – until now. If the credit earned by Russians is above the payment limit, it must be paid between August 21 and August 26. Any balance after that must be transferred within 60 days (unless the corresponding AdSense account is closed due to violation of the terms and conditions of the agreement). After that, it’s over. Starting in March 2022, Russians are no longer allowed to set up new AdSense accounts.
Youtube slowed down
Russian media have accused Google of harassing Russians by cutting off money. The bankruptcy of the Russian Google subsidiary in autumn 2023 serves as further “proof” of the alleged Russophobia, what the report does not say: a Russian authority had seized all the company’s bank accounts in Russia at that time, which is why it was no longer able to employ staff and pay bills. The company was therefore prepared for bankruptcy.
For about a month, YouTube and other Google services have been noticeably slow in large parts of Russia – Google is also primarily to blame for this. Since then, especially regional network operators have experienced an exodus of subscribers; Russian netizens are turning to larger providers in hopes of better YouTube and Google connections. YouTube in particular is extremely popular in Russia; According to similarweb.com After the United States, Russia has the largest share of global YouTube traffic, even ahead of the most populous country, India.
Why exactly YouTube and Google have become so slow is unclear. It is known that the Russian censorship authority has ordered Russian network operators to report all of Google’s cache servers. These servers are typically owned by network operators and keep the most important YouTube and Google data as close as possible to end users. The capture could be a sign that the servers are being seized, possibly as part of bankruptcy proceedings. The state punished YouTube for removing propaganda channels and wants to collect fines.
Perhaps the cache servers are simply monitored specifically or filter routers are installed upstream. These slow down the data stream. Until now, a big advantage of cache servers in Russia was that they were much closer to Russian users than state filters, and were therefore able to deliver video much faster than was possible via international, filtered connections. According to the daily Kommersant, an industry association of about 200 regional network operators wrote to the censorship authority asking it to explain the reasons for the drop in performance. In the same newspaper Published commentary Note: “It is clear that the restriction on access to YouTube is at the request of the authorities.”
This in no way means that the Russian Internet is ad-free. On the one hand, there are advertising intermediaries who continue to do business in Russia, and on the other hand, video uploaders specifically incorporate advertising measures directly into their videos.
(DS)
