YouTube block fears grow in in Russia, widespread accessibility issues reported

YouTube

According to Reuters and NEXTA, many YouTube users have reported thousands of glitches in the availability of video hosting site YouTube on Thursday. This comes after increased criticism of the platform by the Russian authorities in the past few weeks. Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf said that many users have reported various glitches about YouTube in Russia. Users also said they could only access YouTube via virtual private networks (VPNs).

The reports further added that some of the users criticised YouTube is not even opening up and being completely inaccessible to them. Reuters reported that their Russian correspondents were also not able to use the platform. However, many mobile users are still unaffected.

Russian news outlet Meduza also previously reported that Russian authorities have been intentionally slowing down YouTube playback speeds in the country. Alexander Khinshtein, head of a parliamentary committee on information policy, previously warned of the slowdown because of the failure on Google’s part to invest in Russian infrastructure, which YouTube’s owner Alphabet rejected.

However, a representative for YouTube stated last week that the company was aware of rumours circulating that certain Russians were having trouble accessing the platform, and it was not because of any technological problems from their end.

Many Ukrainian news outlets also believe that Russian authorities want to completely ban all Google-based services, including YouTube accessibility by September.