The Kremlin plans to block YouTube, one of the few remaining ways Russians can obtain uncensored details about the ongoing war in Ukraine and see videos from exiled opposition leaders.
A source close to President Vladimir Putin's administration told Gazeta, a pro-government website, that streaming speeds for YouTube will start slowing in Russia this summer, and that "blocking will begin in September," The Times.
The information was confirmed by a second source in Russia's security services.
The video site has more than 90 million users a month in Russia. Recently, more than 130 million viewers saw a video from late opposition leader Alexei Navalny about Putin's Black Sea palace.
Russia has engaged in unprecedented censorship, since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, including bans on "extremist" Instagram and Facebook and blocking Twitter, now known as X.
In addition, the government has blocked hundreds of Russian-language websites and has criminalized efforts to distribute what it called "fake news" about Russia's actions in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has attempted to create its own version of YouTube, called RuTube, but it has not been successful. It also denies that Moscow is planning to block YouTube.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said that slowdowns are happening because Google has not updated its equipment for more than two years, not because of any official action.
"There can be no other explanation," he insisted.
A telecommunications industry source, though, told exile opposition website Meduza that Peskov was trying to "shift responsibility" and that the government started slowing YouTube's speeds last week.
The WhatsApp messaging service could be next, according to Anton Nemkin, a member of the Russian Parliament's information policy committee.
Some regions have started to restrict access to the service, Nemkin said, and "the next step could be to block it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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