Russia is confidently moving towards self-isolation and creating its own information bubble with an alternative reality. YouTube has become another victim of import substitution.
Today, Russian YouTube users have begun to complain en masse about the inaccessibility of the video hosting service. Relevant monitoring services show a rapid increase in complaints about YouTube’s shutdown. When users try to access the video hosting site, they receive a message about the lack of connection.
Residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Saratov, Samara, Krasnodar, occupied Crimea, and other regions complain about such problems. Some people report that YouTube does not open when they try to access the site via home internet, but when using mobile internet, the video hosting service still works. For now.
Recently, the media reported that the Russian authorities decided to slow down YouTube in the country. To do this, providers were instructed to reduce the speed of access to the platform to 128 kbps, which can be considered unusable. However, it seems that later they decided to go beyond slowing down and completely blocked access to the American video hosting service.
Russians are complaining and quietly expressing their dissatisfaction with the authorities’ decision to block YouTube in Russia:
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«Old Believer moles hacked YouTube. I don’t understand why Russians need a state that makes life so difficult»
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«I hate the Russian government. They have ruined everything they can. They have reached YouTube»
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«How to study? Bring back Youtube, you bastards!»
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«Totalitarian censorship. Because of which I can’t turn on a cartoon for my child. Turn off the fucking internet in the country, you bastards».
It should be noted that due to the blocking of YouTube in Russia, some Ukrainian channels may see a significant decrease in the number of views and Russian-language comments.
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