The traffic of the American video hosting YouTube in Russia has fallen to 20% of its normal level, writes the Telegram channel “ZaTelekom”  with reference to the Transparency Report (Google).

This is a new minimum. “Currently, Google’s monitoring service shows 8.5 points of traffic from the Russian Federation. Before the “slowdown”, it was 40 points,” notes the author of the channel, director of the Internet Protection Society Mikhail Klimarev.  

According to him, such speed makes using the platform impossible: “We state: YouTube is de facto blocked in the Russian Federation.”

YouTube’s traffic drop in Russia is not the result of technical issues or actions on Google’s part. “Google and YouTube are among the few remaining platforms offering access to free, independent information in Russia.

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,” RBC quotes the company’s statement as saying.

Roskomnadzor began slowing down YouTube in July, citing technical problems allegedly caused by wear and tear on Google servers. However, the American corporation immediately rejected this version.

Soon, Alexander Khinshtein, who headed the State Duma Committee on Information Policy at the time, admitted that the restrictions were initiated by the Russian authorities. This was also confirmed by technical specialists.

By autumn, YouTube’s speed in the country had dropped to a record low. The average time it took for landline users to start playing a video increased almost 10-fold — from 1.21 seconds in June to 11.01 seconds in September. A new wave of slowdowns occurred in the first month of winter.

Previously, the restrictions affected mainly the desktop version of YouTube, but on December 19, they also spread to the mobile version, as operators MTS, Beeline, MegaFon, Tele2 and Yota began to slow down the platform.

On the same day, President Vladimir Putin said during a direct line that YouTube’s deterioration was caused by the actions of the video service itself.

He emphasized that Roskomnadzor’s claims against YouTube were justified, and that the platform must comply with local laws in order to function normally in Russia.

The regulator, in turn,  accused YouTube of showing “disrespect” for the country. Before the slowdown, the average daily reach of the video hosting service in Russia was 55.4 million people.

(C)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2024