Russian watchdog to send request to Google over plans to ‘de-rank’ RT, Sputnik

The head of the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor, Aleksandr Zharov, on Tuesday made a statement over the plans of Google to de-rank Sputnik and RT by preventing the distribution of their content with the use of special algorithms. Roskomnadzor will send Google an official request in connection with the intention to “rank” the materials of RT and Sputnik, Zharov said. “Let’s first see what they will do,” Sputnik quoted him as saying. “To rank the news - what this means… Secondly, it is obvious that we will defend our media. Let’s see how discriminating this measure will be.”