Video hosting YouTube blocks anti-war content at the request of the Russian authorities

Video hosting YouTube blocks anti-war content at the request of the Russian authorities

YouTube began blocking opposition content in Russia at the request of the Russian authorities.

RosSMI writes about this.

Four videos dedicated to evasion of military service have already been blocked on the channels “Dozor in Volgograd”, “Conscript School” and another independent regional media outlet, the name of which has not been specified. In addition, the video hosting service threatened to block the entire OVD-Info channel, and not just individual videos.

The four blocking notices reviewed by the Agency say that YouTube received a letter from Roskomnadzor stating that the channel’s materials violate the federal law “On Information.”

At the beginning of May, Roskomnadzor notified OVD-Info that five more of its resources were blocked in Russia, including two YouTube channels - OVD-Info and How Now? with 99 thousand subscribers.

This is the first case in Russia when Roskomnadzor demands to block an entire channel, and not a specific video, OVD-Info press secretary Dmitry Anisimov told the Agency. Now, he said, the human rights project is consulting with Google and trying to explain that “the demand to block the channel is illegal and is a manifestation of politically motivated censorship.”

The creator of the Dozor in Volgograd channel, Evgeny Kochegin, told the publication that he would try to challenge the blocking, but did not hope to succeed.

In early February, the Public Chamber of Russia announced that it plans to create a “black list” of Russian bloggers who publish content on YouTube and do not switch to Russian sites. Video hosting there was called “an effective information weapon of the West” with a multi-billion-dollar audience.