Russia curbs YouTube speed by 70%, considers total ban
Russia has slowed down the speed of American YouTube in its country by nearly 70%. This is a reaction to creating its alternative and systematically appearing on the "anti-Russian" platform with content against the Kremlin. According to Kadyrov, Russia should go a step further and completely shut down this platform.
The war in Ukraine has been ongoing for two and a half years. During this time, many sanctions have been imposed on Russia, to which Russia had to respond somehow. Besides the economic ones, there was also a technological exclusion that particularly hurt the Russian elites from big cities.
Over time, Russians began to circumvent this, returning once again to the most popular social media in the world. However, there, they increasingly encountered dangerous information about Kremlin policies from the West, which the Russian government later started to fight against.
The result was recent media reports that Russians managed to use certain features of the American platform and create their equivalent of YouTube. Now, it turns out that the Kremlin authorities are so convinced of the excellence of this copy that they decided to fight against the original and slow down its data transmission by over 70%.
Kadyrov demands a complete shutdown of the 'anti-Russian' YouTube
— Y Close YouTube to hell. Unfortunately, we are late: YouTube should have been shut down a long time ago — said the Chechen leader after the Friday slowing down of the American platform. According to Kadyrov, the treatment of American social media is too lenient, slowing down the development of Russian technologies.
As an example of the correct policy, the Chechen points towards China. In his opinion, it is precisely cutting off access for local citizens to foreign media that helped develop "patriotic" Chinese applications. However, to be able to propagate them, it is necessary to engage the most popular stars in the country.
According to Kadyrov, Russian social networks are not developing because "our top artists, actors, and athletes" use foreign platforms. "If we closed everything like in China and other places, our own websites would develop," he told journalists.
