As part of sanctions against Russia for the invasion on Ukraine, Google’s video sharing platform YouTube has blocked the official channel of Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament. According to Reuters, a message on YouTube said the Duma channel had been “terminated for a violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service”. A visit to the YouTube Channel Duma TV shows that the page is not available.
Duma TV on its website said that the channel had 145,000 subscribers, and the videos of then channel had over 100 million views. Apart from broadcasting sessions of the parliament, Duma TV also streamed comments by government officials and parliamentarians, and exclusive programs.
The channel said that they were already prepared for a possible blocking by YouTube, and has already readied alternate Channels on RuTube, VKontakte and Telegram.
Russian officials strongly objected to this decision by Alphabet Inc. Virtually threatening to ban YouTube in Russia, Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, “From the look of it, YouTube has signed its own warrant.” She advised Russian YouTube users to transfer their content to Russian platforms, indicating that YouTube may disappear from Russia soon. “Save content, transfer to Russian platforms. And hurry up,” she said on Telegram.
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that YouTube’s move was further proof of violations of rights and freedom by the US govt. “The USA wants to obtain a monopoly on promoting information. We cannot let it happen,” the speaker said.
In the meanwhile, Russian telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor said that it has urged Google to restore the Duma TV channel. “The American IT company adheres to a pronounced anti-Russian position in the information war unleashed by the West against our country,” Roskomnadzor said.
The department also demanded to explain the reason for such restrictions.
The machine translation of the statement by Roskomnadzor reads as following:
Roskomnadzor demanded that the American company Google LLC, which owns the YouTube Internet service, immediately restore access to the Duma TV channel of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on video hosting and explain the reason for the introduction of such restrictions.
The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is a representative and legislative body of power in the Russian Federation, one of the chambers of the Parliament. The blocking of the YouTube channel of the state body, carried out by the administration of the video hosting, prevents the dissemination of information and free access to it.
The American IT company adheres to a pronounced anti-Russian position in the information war unleashed by the West against our country. Video hosting is a key platform for the spread of fakes, discriminating against official Russian sources of information.
Google said that it was committed to compliance with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws. “If we find that an account violates our Terms of Service, we take appropriate action. Our teams are closely monitoring the situation for any updates and changes,” the company told Reuters via email.
Russia has already blocked access to Meta owned platforms Facebook and Instagram calling it an extremist organisation.
Access to Twitter also has been restricted in the country. It also can be completely blocked, as the micro-blogging site has started limiting the reach of Russian government accounts. “We will not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict — whether Twitter is blocked in that country or not,” Twitter said in a statement.
