YouTube broadcasts in Russia seem to have the hours numbered. It is that the government of Vladimir Putin, through its media control body, demanded that Google (Alphabet Inc) stop spreading what it qualifies as threats against the people of Russia in the videos on the platform.
Without a doubt, this is a warning that could portend a blockage of the service in Russian territories.
Neither Google nor YouTube have made a statement regarding the statement from the Russian government, published this Friday, March 18.
Roskomnadzor, the Russian regulator, says there are promoted videos on the platform calling for people to disrupt the communications systems of Russian and Belarusian rail networks. He assures that this is proof of the anti-Russian position of the US company.
“What YouTube does is of a terrorist nature and threatens the life and health of citizens of Russia,” reads the text of the Roskomnadzor statement.
Roskomnadzor says it is “categorically opposed to the nature of these ad campaigns” and demands that Google “stop broadcasting anti-Russian videos as soon as possible.”
The news is the latest news regarding the increasingly tense situation between the Kremlin and multinational technology companies over the conflict in Ukraine.
Before this escalation of threats, YouTube decided to block Moscow-funded media globally. It also prevented Russian YouTubers from receiving foreign income through the platform.
The Russian reaction is related to the series of blockades and the changes in its content policies, some of which are technological. Facebook, for example, began allowing its users to post messages like “death to Russian invaders.”
In response, the Kremlin blocked Mark Zuckerberg’s social network and, later, Instagram for its 80 million users in that country.
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s so-called “IT army” of volunteer hackers said their new goal was to cripple rail networks linking Russia with Belarus.
Belarus is an ally of Putin and has served as a crossing point for Russian forces entering Ukraine from the north.
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