YouTube traffic in Russia has fallen below 20% of average values. But Google did not take responsibility for slowing down the platform. The American company, which owns this video hosting service, claims that it has nothing to do with it.
We are aware of reports that some people are unable to access YouTube in Russia. This is not the result of any technical issues or actions on our part.
In early August, users began complaining about problems with playing videos on YouTube in good quality or complete loss of access to the platform on fixed-line networks. However, some users continued to use video hosting through mobile networks.
The head of Roskomnadzor, Andrei Lipov, explained the problems by the "degradation" of Google's caching servers (Google Global Cache, GGC) after the company left Russia and stopped servicing them.
In December, there were difficulties with uploading videos on the mobile networks of operators MTS, MegaFon, T2 and VimpelCom (Beeline). According to an RBC source in the media market, both an increase and a complete blocking of video hosting on all devices were possible. Google has repeatedly denied its involvement in slowing down YouTube in Russia.
As a reminder, in September, the speed of YouTube in Russia slowed down almost 10 times. Users of stationary networks began to wait for the start of the video for an average of 11.01 seconds, and mobile operators - 3.83 seconds. Viewers from Russia are forced to spend five times more time launching a video - 9.49 seconds instead of 1.27 seconds.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin explained why the foreign platform YouTube practically does not work in Russia.
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Historical minimum: YouTube traffic in Russia has fallen to a shocking 20% of normal