YouTube is immediately blocking worldwide access to Russian state media channels, the company said, citing a policy that bans content that denies or simplifies well-documented violent events, Reuters reported.

YouTube said that "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is now covered by its violent events policy".

 “Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events. We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy,” said spokesperson Farshad Shadloo.

“In line with that, we are also now blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally, expanding from across Europe. This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.”