Russia on Friday demanded Google to stop spreading what Moscow labels as threats against the Russian citizens on YouTube, Google’s video-sharing platform.
Roskomnadzor, the Russian regulator said that the adverts on the platform were calling for the communications systems of Russia and Belarus’ railway networks to be suspended and that their dissemination was evidence of the United States based company’s anti-Russian position. However, which accounts were publishing the adverts was not disclosed.
The regulator said that the actions of the YouTube administration are of a terrorist nature and threaten the life and health of Russian citizens. Roskomnadzor categorically opposes such advertising campaigns and demands Google to stop broadcasting anti-Russia videos as soon as possible.
YouTube has imposed a worldwide block on the Russian state-funded media and is now under heavy pressure from the Russian communications regulator and politicians. It has been reported that Google removed an advertisement that was pointed out by the Russian government.
Facebook and Instagram posts by the social media users in Ukraine, such as “Death to the Russian invaders”, had enraged Moscow which led to blocking of Instagram this week, whereas, the access to Facebook was stopped much earlier.
Russian news media has quoted an unnamed source as saying that YouTube could be blocked in the next week or as early as Friday.
Domestic Alternatives To YouTube
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian President, wrote on Friday a fierce criticism about the foreign social media firms, whereas mentioning both Meta and YouTube by name, at the same time he also hinted that the door leading to their possible return to the Russian market would be left unlatched.
“The ‘guardians’ of free speech have in all seriousness allowed users of their social media to wish death upon the Russian military,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
Medvedev further said that Russia has the tools and experience to develop its own social media and the “one-way game” of the western firms controlling the flow of information cannot continue.
VKontakte, the Russian answer to Facebook, has been breaking records for activity on its platform since Russia has invaded Ukraine.
On the very day that Instagram was blocked in Russia, VKontakte announced that its daily domestic audience grew by 8.7 percent.
Anton Gorelkin, Russia’s Duma committee member on information and communications, pointed Russians to services that would help them move videos from YouTube to ReTube, the domestic equivalent of YouTube.
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