The government had slowed down the social network to ban Russian channels accused of “propaganda”. The service was restored Thursday after a director complained to Vladimir Putin.
The operation of the YouTube video platform was restored in Russia on Thursday after several months of slowdown, after President Vladimir Putin promised a director to resolve the problem, Russian media reported. Russian users began reporting problems with the operation of YouTube, owned by American giant Google, this summer after Russian authorities threatened to slow down the service.
The government, which has already blocked or slowed down several American social networks in the country, criticizes Google in particular for having banned Russian channels from YouTube accused of “propaganda”. Director Karen Chakhnazarov, director of the Mosfilm film company, said Thursday that he had complained about the situation to Vladimir Putin during a meeting the day before. “Slowing down YouTube, in my opinion, does not make sense today”declared Mr. Chakhnazarov on Russian television, confirming having discussed it with Vladimir Putin. “He listened to me and said: 'I'll take care of it, I'll look'”he added.
Many Western sites banned
In the evening, Russian media reported that YouTube was working normally again. According to the Internet censorship monitoring service GlobalCheck, the site is fully accessible from all the largest Russian internet providers. Russian power has greatly increased its control over the internet since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, banning a number of Western sites and social networks in which its detractors could express themselves freely, such as Facebook, Instagram and X At the beginning of October, the authorities also banned the discussion platform Discord. However, these resources remain accessible from Russia using a VPN, a means of circumvention which is also in the sights of the authorities.
