YouTube disruptions in Russia: Critics call it ‘deliberate’ attempt, Kremlin says Putin to look into speed issue

The country's top cinema official raised the matter of slow speeds and disruptions on YouTube in Russia, so President Vladimir Putin took the initiative and directed the Kremlin officials to look into it, reported Reuters on Friday.

According to critics, YouTube is being deliberately disrupted by the authorities to prevent Russians from viewing a mass of content there that is critical of Putin and his government.

However, Russia denied the critics' accusations and stated the issues are caused by Google's failure to upgrade equipment—a charge disputed by the company and technology experts.

In the last few months, Russian internet monitoring services have reported mass outages of YouTube, an online video hosting service owned by Alphabet's Google. However, on Friday, communications regulator Roskomnadzor said it was not registering any changes in the quality of YouTube's service.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the speed issue was linked to Google's failure to comply with Russian law and that technical questions should be addressed to Roskomnadzor.

Peskov even said that YouTube speeds were not high on people's agendas in Russia.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

What Mosfilm said:

Karen Shakhnazarov, who has headed the state-owned giant of Soviet and Russian cinema, Mosfilm, for more than 25 years, said on Thursday he had met with Putin and discussed the issue.

"Slowing down YouTube, in my view, is not very advisable today," Reuters quoted Shakhnazarov as saying on state television. "To which the president said there are all sorts of nastiness on there."

According to research company Mediascope, YouTube is used by more than 50 million Russians every day as it provides an important platform for the exiled Russian opposition and for independent news outlets.

In past few years, Google, along with other foreign tech firms and social media platforms, has been under pressure, as they have not taken down content Moscow considers illegal, such as what it calls "fakes" about the war in Ukraine.

Russia also strongly objects to Google blocking YouTube channels and videos from state-sponsored media.

Meanwhile, Shakhnazarov agreed there were some bad things on YouTube, but that those who wanted to access them were able to get around restrictions and many others simply use the platform to watch films and other content.

"He listened and said 'I'll look into it'," Shakhnazarov said.

With agency inputs.