YouTube on March 11 broadened its blocking of Russian state-linked media channels to apply internationally after initially barring them only in Europe following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Radio Free Europe reports.

The world's most-used streaming video service, which is owned by Google, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine now fell under its violent events policy and that violating material would be removed.

YouTube's guidelines "prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events, and we remove content about Russia's invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy," the video-sharing platform said.

YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo said the blocking of the Russian outlets was in line with that policy.

YouTube did not specify which and how many channels had been blocked globally or whether they ever would be restored.

Its policy states channels may be permanently blocked for repeated violations, a single case of severe abuse, or when they are dedicated to violating content.