After the ban on broadcasting of the German channel Deutsche Welle as a response to the expulsion of RT from the German media market, talks about banning YouTube in Russia resumed again. Novye Izvestia discussed with experts whether this is possible and what will come out of it.
Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors, commented:
“It is one thing to make a political decision to block online services, and another thing is a technical possibility. There is a technical possibility, and there will be no problems with this. We have examples of online platforms that did not comply with the requirements of the legislation on the localization of personal data in Russia and were blocked, we do not have access to them. It has been implemented.
Starting in January 2021, Roskomnadzor has two laws on the basis of which YouTube in Russia may stop working. The first law on “landing” – the storage and processing of user data in Russia – was adopted earlier. Google ignores it – at least for now. In order to disable the service under the second law, nothing depends on the corporation itself – the Russian authorities can disable any platform and any media if they consider that Russian media are offended in the countries where these services came from.
When Telegram got into trouble, the whole country watched as Roskomnadzor tried to turn off the messenger. Dozens of VPNs immediately appeared, with the help of which everyone who wanted to have Telegram, including the Russian elite, could freely use it. Now VPN owners are also required to go through the same landing procedure, but, as experts say, you can’t keep track of everyone.
You can’t do that with YouTube.”
The full text of the article “Is it possible to turn off Youtube in Russia, and what will come out of it” with the opinions of a number of experts can be found on the Novye Izvestia website.
Source: Novye Izvestia, February 5, 2022