Berlin, August 7, 2024 — Russia’s plans to hamper the operations of YouTube – the country’s most popular social media channel and a major platform for exiled Russian media outlets – is yet another form of censoring the news available to Russian audiences, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.
“This intentional throttling of YouTube is a blatant attempt to limit access to information and suppress a platform used for independent reporting in Russia,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “It is a disturbing trend that threatens to further isolate Russian users from the global discourse.”
The disruptions, which peaked around midnight Moscow time on August 1, followed Russian state-owned Internet provider Rostelecom’s July 12 warning of possible YouTube slowdowns because of what it said were technical problems with Google’s equipment – a claim later denied by Google.
On the same day as the Rostelecom statement, cybersecurity experts reported that Russian authorities were deliberately slowing down YouTube and Russian state-funded Gazeta.ru reported that the platform would be blocked in September.
On July 25, State Duma deputy Aleksander Khinshtein said that the planned YouTube slowdown was not directed at Russian users, but “against the administration of a foreign resource that still believes it can violate and ignore our legislation with impunity.”
On August 6, Independent news outlet Meduza reported that Russian authorities had notified the country’s largest telecom operators that YouTube would be slowed down to a low-resolution video playback speed of 128 kilobits per second.
Russian authorities have long spoken out against YouTube, with Russia’s state media regulator Roskomnadzor saying in April 2022 that YouTube had become “one of the key platforms spreading false information” about the Russia-Ukraine war. Russian courts have since repeatedly fined Google over war-related information distributed on YouTube.
CPJ emailed Rostelecom and Khinshtein for comment but received no response.