He blocked Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
He signed a censorship that tiktok disabled the function.
Vladimir V. Putin has stopped free expressions in Russia since the Soviet era. Now he aims to be the last Western technical platform that is almost standing in Wartime Russia: YouTube.
Putin has not officially banned the US video platform with more than 2.5 billion users worldwide. But this site has upset the Russian authorities, and this site sees it as an irreversible gateway to the reversal. They also removed the videos of Russian musicians who were sanctioned by YouTube and the Western sanctions to remove the Russian propaganda channel.
So last summer, Russian users mainly experienced YouTube’s significant slowdown in the desktop internet connection. Internet experts said that the sudden and simultaneous drop in traffic can only be explained by intentionally controlling the service to some of the Russian authorities.
The intentional slowdown of the service has spread to a wider Internet on the Internet, including the mobile network last month. It was too slow or pixeled for millions of Russians to access the video.
Philip Dietrich, an analyst of the German Diplomatic Council, said, “This sudden drop in large falls is 100 % artificial. “There is no doubt about the fact that this is a human being.”
The results of Broadside for YouTube have been mixed so far that Moscow’s complications of taking the cornerstone made in the United States on the Russian Internet on the Russian Internet.
YouTube has been streaming for many Russians for many years, from old Soviet films to anti -Kremlin politics shows, as a necessity for everyday life. According to the research group MediaSCOPE, about 79 %of more than 96 million Russians or 12 people over 12 years of age visited the monthly site as of July, according to the research group MediaSCOPE, they visited the site every month before the service slowed.
But the relationship between Kremlin and Google, who owns YouTube, has been nervous for several years. Viral Virus St. YouTube Broadcasting has transformed the Russian opposition party ALEKSEI A. Navalny into a serious threat to Kremlin. His corruption investigation of the Black Sea Palace, which was built for President Putin, published in YOUTUBE in early 2021, has been eliminated by 135 million views over the past four years to emphasize the power of the platform.
At one level, throttling seems to be effective. According to public data released by Google, the parent of Streaming Service, Russian Internet traffic to YouTube is less than a third of last year. VK, a state control social media network, suggests domestic alternatives to Youtube, known as VK video, and traffic has soared.
But reality is more complicated.
Russians who are familiar with technology continue to access Youtube using virtual private networks or VPNs. These tools expose Internet traffic through other countries and do not appear in Russian usage in Google’s data. It also encrypts the user’s traffic and protects the identity.
YouTube’s obstacles have also been proven to be spots from hundreds of Russian Internet providers, and some Russians can directly access the YouTube video without VPN.
According to Russian journalist Dmitry Kolezev, the critical show of Kremlin, which was taken outside Russia, seems to be relatively minimized by traffic taken outside Russia. It may be because Russian viewers who have motivated Van Kremlin content have quickly acquired VPN.
According to the YouTube Traffic Measurement Site, entertainment content from children’s cartoons to cooking shows has fallen significantly. Viewers of these content are less likely to buy VPNs and find what they want on the Russian streaming platform.
The exact number of Russians using VPN is unclear. Mikhail KLIMAREV, the executive director of the Internet Protection Society, headquartered in Europe, estimates that more than half or about 60 million Russian Internet users know and use at least what VPNs are. . one.
KLIMAREV said, “People will learn how to use VPN because of YouTube and that there is much more on the Internet than getting on the Internet. “This is simply high quality, and more opportunities, more access to content.”
Nevertheless, the slowing of the service is used by many Russians to induce national control domestic platforms such as VK and Rutube, consuming the contents used to see in YouTube. It is the branch of the Internet that Kremlin wants.
“We call this phenomenon as a splinton,” said Anastasiya Zhyrmont, Eastern Europe and Central Asia’s policy managers from Digital Rights Group Access. “We are trying to split the Internet and build our own ecosystem,” he said.
Ilya Shepelin, a Russian exile Russian journalist, creates a popular YouTube video that distorts the main propaganda, and only a political oriented Russian man who sets up and pays high -quality VPNs stays in YouTube. Domestic control domestic Internet will not have the opportunity for the nation’s critical political video.
As a result, video makers said, “It is a kind of information bubble,” he said.
I already see some branches.
Artur Dneprovsky, the creator of 20 Youtube channels, including the popular “Blue Tractor”, said in the email, the bigger channel of his studio has decreased from 20 %to 30 %. The project fell to 50 %of the slowing speed.
At the same time, he saw that the vision and subscribers were noticeable and rapidly increasing in Russia’s domestic video platform, especially Rutube. Some people who have problems with YouTube are migrating as an alternative with Rutube or VK.
Maxim Katz, a Russian opposition party that broadcasts Israel’s popular politics YouTube show, has seen the number of users who tune his show in Russia in channel data from a year ago. However, his overall viewer ratings were the same, suggesting that some Russian viewers adopted VPNs and appeared in data from other countries.
Katz, who is on the Federal Wanted List in Russia and does not post a video on the controlled platform, said, “People are simply watching YouTube using VPNS EN EN.
In early 2022, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine expanded the conflict between Kremlin and Google. According to YouTube, the company has blocked more than 1,000 Russian propaganda channels, including more than 5.5 million videos worldwide. The advertisements shown in YouTube were stopped to Russian users, and Russian -based advertisers provided advertisements to users around the world.
Google regularly rejected the Russian authorities to remove the content. For example, Putin announced mobilization to strengthen his release forces in Ukraine in September 2022, and Russian communication regulators asked Google to remove 63 videos from Youtube related to unpopular mobilization. Google said that Clip agreed to remove only one because he recommended using poison to avoid draft drafts.
In July, Google complied with European sanctions against PRO-KREMLIN MUSIANS in kremlin and stimulated kremlin’s IRE when he removed the channel and videos. The interference of the service soon began.
The Russian authorities also hit Google as a fine was imposed.
Putin spoke at the annual Colin Show last month and accused you of bidding by the US government by providing political oriental videos to Russians who search for culture and music contents.
Putin said, “If they want to work here, they will act in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.”
Putin also said last year that the company did not provide Russian infrastructure since he retreated from the market last year, accusing him of confusion over YouTube. Google denies that technical problems are responsible for slowing.
Russian authorities have strengthened their long -term campaigns for VPN services, which can further reduce Russia’s access to YouTube and other western technology platforms.
For example, Apple removed the VPN’s score from the Russian App Store last year with an angry movement in the Russian App Store. (Google Play, which corresponds to the App Store, which is more popular than Russia’s iPhone), did not do so.
Russian content makers, including those who support Putin, are not satisfied with the national control domestic YouTube alternatives without international control, recommendation algorithms, the possibility of profit generation and a wide range of users.
President Putin’s opinion on YouTube in December came from the question of VLAD BUMAGA, a popular Russian YouTube blogger.
BUMAGA from Belarusi praised Russian alternatives, including VK. Nevertheless, he asked if you could access the YouTube access.
Even after signing with VK, Bumaga still uploads video to YouTube, and continues to receive millions of views and thousands of Russian opinions. His account claims that he is based on the United States.
Labzina Night and Matsnev ‘s Oleg Contribution.
