Text by D. Puchkov
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The other day, YouTube destroyed and banned channels of Russian artists, including those of SHAMAN, Polina Gagarina, Yulia Chicherina, Oleg Gazmanov, Grigory Leps and actor Vyacheslav Manucharov. Nothing new, they have destroyed hundreds of our channels before — channels of war correspondents, political bloggers, and blocked domestic media. For what?
Just for a pro-Russian patriotic position.
A couple of years ago, this same YouTube destroyed my channel, which had three million subscribers. For what? For the same thing, for a patriotic, pro-Russian position. The Ukrainian Nazis who work as moderators on YouTube really didn’t like what I was saying about Nazis.
Being a smart guy, a year and a half before that, I transferred all my content to the domestic resources of RuTube and VK video, but most users simply don’t think about such things. And here it is — a total ban and destruction of content without any explanation.
What can be said about YouTube in general? It is the main platform for ideological influence on the population of Russia. This platform operates under the strict control of the US government and intelligence agencies. Probably everyone remembers how at the beginning of the SVO YouTube called for the killing of Russians? And now it calls for the same thing, taking a sharply Russophobic position. And if this is not a threat to our national security, then what is it?
Adults do not understand how the Internet works and have practically no idea what is happening there. Adults watch domestic television, in which the US State Department is powerless. But on YouTube, the State Department reigns supreme, shaping the public consciousness of young people strictly in the key needed by the Americans, instilling values that are absolutely alien to us and implanting destructive meanings.
Of course, we are also to blame for this — instead of developing our own services, we have been intensively using others. As a result, an unpleasant situation has developed, in which our children are being raised by people who are not ours at all. And you will ask: what to do? And I will answer you. This same YouTube must either comply with the laws of the Russian Federation and obey our requirements, or it should not work on the territory of the Russian Federation at all. They have been repeatedly offered to comply with our laws, the result is zero. Well, if you do not want it the easy way, let's do it the hard way. Let's make it so that YouTube broadcasts to the territory of the Russian Federation simply stop.
YouTube does not want to live by Russian laws on the territory of the Russian Federation - well, let's first "pessimize" it, that is, radically complicate viewing of videos. If they do not get a clear hint, let's block it forever. Because we ourselves should be engaged in our public consciousness, and not the CIA under the leadership of the US State Department. We have our own resources and we can use them much more actively.
Colleagues in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation — we can get together and discuss this ugly situation, when CIA agents and Ukrainian Nazis are openly operating in our information space.
If anyone has something to say, speak up boldly.
P.S. I have been writing about the need to block YouTube in the Russian Federation (and not only it, but also WhatsApp, etc.) since 2022.The mass blocking of Russian channels has simply once again highlighted the obvious.
It would be good to also hold those who have been creating "alternatives to YouTube and taking state money for this" accountable since the early 2010s.
Helping the US government turn out the lights is not a proper response I would prefer. But you can't blame the Russians for theirs.
More from regnum.ru
YouTube has blocked over 200 Russian channels in less than five years
Since 2020, the video hosting YouTube, owned by the American corporation Google, has blocked more than 200 Russian channels. This was reported on July 10 by the press service of Roskomnadzor (RKN).
Since the beginning of 2024 alone, the number of domestic resources blocked by the video hosting service has tripled compared to the entire previous year and amounted to 83 channels versus 27 Internet pages in 2023. In 2022, the video hosting service blocked access to 63 Internet pages, in 2021 - to 21, in 2020 - to 13 resources.
Roskomnadzor noted that the YouTube service is massively blocking channels of Russian state media, pages of famous Russian writers and artists who speak out in support of Russia and the actions of the authorities.
The department emphasized that such actions by the video hosting service are unacceptable, as they constitute an act of censorship and fundamentally violate the key principles of free dissemination of information and unimpeded access to it.
Roskomnadzor threatened the service with turnover fines for blocking Russian channels. They could amount to 5 to 10% of the company's total revenue for the previous year, but not less than 4 million rubles, and for a repeated violation - from 10 to 20% of the company's total revenue for the previous year, but not less than 8 million rubles.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on July 5, YouTube blocked the channels of performers Yaroslav Dronov (Shaman), Polina Gagarina, Yulia Chicherina, Grigory Leps, and Oleg Gazmanov. The blocking is related to the inclusion of a number of individuals in the EU list as part of the 14th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Shaman explained to journalists that his channel was blocked by the fact that he was Russian. The popular singer had almost 3 million subscribers.
Earlier, the YouTube channel "Empathy Manuchi", which belongs to the Russian actor and parodist Vyacheslav Manucharov, was blocked due to the EU sanctions. At the time of blocking, the channel had 1.77 million subscribers.
In January, the video hosting service blocked director Nikita Mikhalkov's channel BesogonTV, allegedly for multiple or serious violations of YouTube's rules regarding discriminatory statements. Mikhalkov himself was surprised that the program had been able to exist there for so long, given its focus on exposing the collective West.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the video hosting site’s actions a classic example of censorship
More from V Kontakte
Text taken from the V Kontakte page of Alexander Kots
YouTube has been turned into a weapon of information warfare
YouTube has already deleted 83 Russian channels in 2024, and more than 200 have been blocked since 2020, Roskomnadzor reported. Meanwhile, more than 61,300 thousand prohibited materials remain undeleted on the video hosting service, including fakes about the SVO and LGBT propaganda.
What else can you expect from an American Internet resource where the Russian segment is moderated by Ukrainians? YouTube has long been turned into a weapon of information warfare. But we continue to use it simply because there is no alternative.
Russia needs to develop its own video hosting services with equally convenient functionality and content without Western censorship.
However, there is no need to ban YouTube. You can still watch cats there.