State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein explained yesterday’s statement regarding the slowdown of YouTube in Russia. The country’s authorities do not intend to take any active restrictive measures against the platform – it is Russian data centers that will stop interacting with Google under gray schemes.
Image source: t.me/Hinshtein
About 80% of video content watched in Russia is physically located on local Google servers, the deputy explained. With the onset of events in Ukraine and the introduction of sanctions, the company was forced to stop supplying and servicing its equipment, and some of the servers that accelerated content loading were turned off. Since 2022, the speed has decreased by 40%, and to improve the situation, Google previously offered Russian providers a direct connection to data centers. But due to sanctions, the American company cannot directly pay Russian counterparties, as a result of which either the data is stored for free, or payment is made through gray schemes.
As a result, the actions of both parties were outside the legal framework. The Russian authorities could turn a blind eye to this, the deputy said, but the YouTube administration continues to block Russian channels and ignores Roskomnadzor’s demands to lift these blocks. Therefore, in the coming days, Russian data centers will stop cooperating with Google under gray schemes, as a result of which YouTube speed will decrease by up to 70%. The platform will not be blocked, but the content will take longer to load. To solve the problem, Google can achieve the lifting of sanctions on the supply of equipment to Russia, open a representative office in the country and launch its own server centers – or officially pay for the services of Russian partners.
Roskomnadzor supported Alexander Khinshtein’s position. “The decline in YouTube’s quality of work is due to Google’s departure from Russia and the company’s decision to stop supporting caching servers,” leads RBC statement of the department. In July, the regulator sent the company a demand to remove the blocking of Russian channels, but did not receive a response. “Numerous violations of our legislation, disrespect for our country and citizens are grounds for taking measures against YouTube. And we have enough tools to motivate the company in such a situation, we reserve the right to use them,” Roskomnadzor noted.
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