Gorelkin called stuffing information about plans to block YouTube in Russia

State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin (United Russia) denies that Russia plans to block YouTube. He also criticized the experts who “disperse” such “stuffing”.

On August 18, the ZaTelecom Telegram channel reported that Rostelecom asked employees to take part in testing a site that provides “internal access to YouTube.” It was about the site ytonline.ru, which is no longer working. According to the channel “We can explain”, through this site “it was possible to watch any video on the American video hosting, including Navalny’s investigations.” “The data obtained will help improve the convenience of our services,” Rostelecom commented on the TASS information.

The director of the Internet Protection Society and the author of the ZaTelecom channel, Mikhail Klimarev (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent), suggested that Rostelecom was testing a YouTube censorship filter. According to him, it would take about two months to launch such a filter. “Direct access to YouTube will be blocked, but it will be possible to watch videos from it through a “layout” – this portal of Rostelecom. But not all of them: seals and cooking – please, and he will not miss content that is seditious from the point of view of power, ”Klimarev suggested.

Mr. Gorelkin assures that no decisions were made to block YouTube, and he does not know anything about the scenario of his “replacement”. The deputy added that “I’m not sure that such a scenario can be implemented at all, given that a significant part of the audience watches YouTube not in a browser, but through mobile or TV applications.” He is convinced that “there are no quick solutions in which the interests of citizens would not suffer.”

“I can understand when stuff about a YouTube ban is dispersed by foreign agents and Telegram channels that are financed by Russia’s enemies: they have quite understandable tasks and KPIs. But when sources positioning themselves as experts begin to disperse it, questions arise about their reputation, ”wrote Anton Gorelkin in Telegram.

April 2022, after blocking YouTube channel “Duma TV”, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova statedthat, “apparently, YouTube has signed its own verdict.” State Duma commission to investigate outside interference promised explore Google’s ways to make money and limit them.

Laura Keffer