Youtube has officially caved in to the Nazis. Russia will punish the service with rubles
The administration of the American video sharing service YouTube has blocked the accounts of Ukrainian opposition television channels affiliated with politician Viktor Medvedchuk, a close associate of the Russian president. The channels were taken off the air by an extrajudicial decision of the Security Council in February of this year. Following this, the Ukrainian authorities requested that YouTube also shut down their online broadcasts. Now, instead of video broadcasts, channels 112, NewsOne, and Zik display a message stating that they are unavailable due to complaints from the Ukrainian government, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Minister of Culture and Information Alexander Tkachenko approved the actions of the video service administration. “This is an important step towards recognition by the world community of Ukraine’s struggle against information influence from the aggressor state. I am grateful to the specialists of the YouTube platform who paid attention to our appeal and the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on TV channels that posed a threat to the national security of Ukraine, since they are not a media outlet or an ordinary broadcaster, but part of Russia’s propaganda war against Ukraine,” Tkachenko wrote in his blog .
Odessa journalist Yuri Tkachev criticized the video service’s decision on his page. “But the question is: if tomorrow Putin asks to block Navalny’s Youtube channel, will his request be fulfilled? No? And why? Oh yes. I don’t understand, this is different.”
TV presenter Vladimir Poluev, who worked for several years on TV channel 112, and now found a job on the “Nash” channel, proposed a scheme to bypass YouTube sanctions: “To watch further channels, use a VPN or change Ukraine to another country in the YouTube settings.”
Meanwhile, Russia is preparing to find control over the American service. Roskomnadzor said that Youtube is abusing its capabilities and introducing unreasonable restrictions on Russian media.
“Such actions by the YouTube video hosting administration violate the key principles of the free dissemination of information, unhindered access to it, and are an act of censorship of Russian media. The department demands that all restrictions be lifted as soon as possible, as well as the reasons for their introduction explained. According to Russian legislation, ignoring by owners of Internet resources warnings about violations of the rights of Russians on the Internet, including censorship of Russian media, entails the imposition of administrative fines of up to 1 million rubles. Repeated refusal to comply with the requirements will entail a multiple increase in fines – up to 3 million rubles,” the statement says.
Senator Alexey Pushkov in his blog considered these fines insufficient and called for the rapid development of a Russian analogue of the video service:
“YouTube feels safe, but this is for the time being. Larger fines should be introduced for blocking Russian resources. This is not a wish, but a necessity. Multimillion-dollar fines are practiced in the EU, France, and Turkey. And we need to quickly approve an alternative in the form of an updated Rutube, which is already working. The long-term trend is not in favor of YouTube.”
YouTube has officially caved in to the Nazis. Russia will punish the service with fines.