Massive disruptions in the operation of the YouTube video hosting service, which Russian users recently faced, and the prospects for its possible complete blocking in the Russian Federation, have caused concern among Russian politicians. All parliamentary parties actively use this service, but also note its political bias.
Thus, the "United Russia" channel has about 5 thousand subscribers, the Communist Party - more than 450 thousand, "Fair Russia - For Truth" - 248 thousand, LDPR - 49.8 thousand.
Representatives of the Communist Party, LDPR and "Fair Russia" express concern about possible blocking of their channels and complain about YouTube's censorship policy. The Communist Party believes that alternative platforms are needed, but there are no such convenient platforms yet.
LDPR uses YouTube as a "digital museum" and also cooperates with video bloggers and opinion leaders. Earlier, the party launched the official Telegram bot of the world's first digital political algorithm "Zhirinovsky."
"Fair Russia" notes that YouTube remains the most effective platform for working with voters in video content format, but the party also posts its content on domestic platforms.
The "New People" party actively uses Telegram and "VKontakte" as the main communication channels, but also runs its channel on YouTube. Deputy Chairman of the party Alexander Davankov launched a campaign to protect the video hosting and suggested that the Ministry of Digital Development create a working group to save the service.
On the eve of the Moscow region Internet provider ONS24 notified its subscribers about the slowdown in access speed to YouTube and other Google services to "unacceptable speeds" due to the government's decision. The provider noted that it cannot influence the situation and asked users to treat it with understanding.
ONS24 suggests that in the future access to all Google services may be completely closed, and therefore recommends its subscribers to switch to alternative platforms.
In turn, the Telegram channel "Backdoor", citing an insider from the telecom market, reports that the Russian authorities have decided to slow down the access speed to YouTube to 128 Kbps. At this speed, users will only be able to listen to audio or watch videos with a resolution of no more than 240p.
Against the background of reports of slowing down and blocking YouTube, VK Video topped the charts of the App Store and Google Play.
Read materials on the topic:
Blocking is not far off?: mobile operators report possible problems with access to YouTube
Slowdown: Russians complained about problems in the work of YouTube
High-quality videos are not played on the Youtube platform in Russia
