Kremlin chokes YouTube service but the Russians find ways around it


He blocked Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

He signed the Cenzura Law that made Tictok disabled his functions.

President Vladimir V. Putin has grown free expression in Russia to the extent unprecedented from the Soviet era. He now has a goal at the last Western Technology Platform, which barely stands in war Russia: YouTube.

Mr. Putin has not officially banned an American video platform that has more than 2.5 billion users around the world. But the place has been angry with Russian authorities, which view the site as an uncontrolled entrance to anti -war content. They also refused YouTube to remove Russian propaganda channels, as well as videos of Russian musicians subject to Western sanctions.

So last summer, Russian users experienced a significant slowdown of YouTube, primarily on internet connections to the desktop. Internet experts said that a sudden and simultaneous decline in traffic could only be explained by the deliberate muffle of the Russian authorities.

The deliberate slowdown of the service expanded to a wider portion of the Internet, including mobile networks, last month. Millions of Russians trying to access videos were considered too slow to load or too pixel to watch.

“This sudden massive fall 100 is artificial,” said Philipp Dietrich, analyst of the German Foreign Relations Council. “There is no doubt the fact that it is human.”

So far, the results of the broadness against YouTube have been mixed up, showing the complications that Moscow faces in the draw of the American stone internet, which has been considered practically too big for years.

YouTube has been a major life for many Russians for years, flowing everything from old Soviet films to political shows against Kremlin. About 96 million Russians over 12 years of age, or about 79 percent of the population over 12 years, visited the place a month since July, before slowing down the service began, according to the Mediascope research group.

But the relationship between Kremlin and Google, which owns YouTube, has been tense for years. In addition to the viral broadcasts of YouTube, the late Russian opposition character Aleksai A. Navalny turned into a significant threat of the cream. His investigation into the Corruption at the Palace on the Black Sea built for Mr. Putin, published on YouTube in early 2021, attracted 133 million views in the last four years, submitting the power of the platform.

On one level, the fluttering seemed to have succeeded. Russian Internet traffic on YouTube is less than a third of what was this time last year, according to public data Published by Google, the parent’s home company Streaming Service. VK, a network of social media under the control of the state, sets a home -made YouTube alternative, known as VK Video, and trumpeted in traffic.

But reality is more complex.

The Russians engaged in technology continue to approach YouTube using virtual private networks or VPN. These tools direct their internet traffic through another country, which means that Google’s data is not shown as Russian use. They also encrypt user traffic and protect their identity.

The distraction of YouTube was also proven stain on hundreds of Russian internet service providers, leaving some Russians able to access YouTube videos directly, even without VPN.

Political emissions critical of Kremlin recorded outside Russia have recorded a relatively minimal traffic crash from a slowdown service, to Russian journalist Dmitry Kolesev, who follows the shows through the product called Yousscore. This is probably because their viewers in Russia are especially motivated to watch anti-Cremlin content quickly acquired VPNs.

The content of the entertainment, in the range of children’s cartoons to cooking emissions, in many cases there has been a significant fall, according to web locations to measure traffic on YouTube. Viewers of this content have less likelihood that they will buy VPN and may be able to find what they are looking for on Russian streaming platforms.

The exact number of Russians used by VPN is not clear. Mihail Klimarev, Executive Director of Internet Protection, Digital Rights Group with headquarters in Europe, estimated that more than half of the Russian Internet users, or about 60 million people, at least know what VPN is and say they are able to use one.

“People will learn to use VPN for YouTube and will find that there is much more on the Internet than what they get on the regular Russian internet,” Mr. Klimarev predicted. “It’s simply better quality, there are simply more options, more access to content.”

However, slowing down the service drives many Russians to domestic platforms under the control of the state, such as VK and Rutuba, to consume at least part of the content they used on YouTube. It is a bifurcation of the internet that the Kremlin wants.

“We call this phenomenon in Splitonette,” said Anastasiya Zhyrmont, head of politics for Eastern Europe and Central Asia on Access Access Digital Rights Group Access. They try to “break the internet and build their own ecosystem,” she said.

Ilya Shepelin, a Russian journalist in exil who makes popular videos on YouTube that distorts state propaganda, worries that only politically oriented Russians will go through the process of setting and paying quality VPN on YouTube, and the rest migrated according to A homework for free time Under the supervision of the state, where it will not happen in political videos critical of the state.

The result, he said, would be “a type of bubble with information” where video creatives would not “reach the average Russian”.

Already visible some bifurcation.

Arthur DaProvsky, a creator of about 20 YouTube channels showing children’s cartoons in Russian, including the popular “Blue Tractor”, said in the email that the larger channels in his studio saw a drop in traffic on YouTube from 20 percent to 30 percent, while smaller, while smaller projects fell up to 50 percent, in the middle of a slowdown.

At the same time, he said, he saw a noticeable and quick increase in views and subscribers to Russian domestic video platforms, especially Rutuba, where more than 400,000 people have applied for “Blue Tractor” since the start of gas – suggesting that some people who have problems with YouTube migrates on rutubes or VK as alternatives.

Maxim Katz, a Russian opposition figure that broadcast a popular political YouTube show from Israel, watched that the number of users was tweaking into his show from Russia in the data for his channel fell 45 percent a year ago. But his overall viewing numbers remained the same, suggesting that some viewers in Russia had adopted VPN and appeared in data as from other countries.

“People have simply switched to VPN’s massively and continue to watch YouTube,” said Mr. Katz, who is in the Russian federal list of desires and does not post videos on platforms under the control of the state.

The invasion of Mr. Putin in Ukraine in early 2022 was significantly escalated by Kremlin’s conflict with Google. The company has globally blocked more than 1,000 propaganda channels under the auspices of the state, including more than 5.5 million videos, YouTube states. He suspended the ads shown on YouTube users in Russia, as well as serving ads by Russian advertisers globally.

Google regularly denied the requirements of the Russian authorities to remove the content. For example, after Mr. Putin announced his mobilization in September 2022 to increase his forces in Ukraine, the Russian communication regulator asked Google to remove 63 videos from YouTube relating to unpopular mobilization. Google said he agreed to remove only one because the clip advised the use of poison to avoid draft.

In July, Google encouraged Irea from Kremlin when he fulfilled the sanctions of the European Union for pro-Cremlin musicians and removed their channels and videos. The disruption of the service began shortly after.

The Russian authorities also slapped Google with a growing fine.

Mr. Putin, speaking in an annual position last month, accused YouTube and Google of performing offers from the US government by serving politically oriented videos on Russians seeking culture and musical content.

“If they want to work here,” said Mr. Putin, “let them act in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.”

Last year, Mr. Putin blamed the disorders on YouTube on YouTube last year, saying that the company had not serviced its infrastructure in Russia from withdrawing from the market. Google denies that technical questions are responsible for slowing down

Russian authorities have increased a long -term campaign against VPN services, which, if effective, could further reduce Russian access to YouTube and other Western technological platforms.

Apple, for example, removed The tenth VPN from his App Store in Russia last year under the obvious pressure of Moscow, a move that has been outraged by the International Human Rights Groups. (Google Play, Equivalent App Store for Android devices, which are more popular than the iPhone in Russia, did not do so).

Few Russian content factories, including those who support Mr. Putin, are satisfied with limited to domestic alternatives on YouTube under the surveillance of the state, which lacks the same international range, algorithm for recommendations, capabilities and a wide user base.

Mr. Putin’s comments on YouTube in December were asked in response to the question of the popular YouTube blogger in Russian, Vlad Bumaga.

Mr. Bumaga, originally from Belarus, praised Russian alternatives, including VK, who has an agreement to broadcast his videos. But he still asked if YouTube could stay available.

Even after signing with VK, Mr. Bumaga still transmits his videos to YouTube, where millions of views and thousands of comments in Russian continue to earn. His account claims that he is headquartered in the United States.

Labza’s night and Matnev oleg contribute to reporting.



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