Russia Accuses YouTube of Blocking Parliament Channel

Russia accuses video platform YouTube of having blocked the channel of the Russian parliament, Douma-TV. Moscow says this will have consequences for YouTube.

 

The American company Google, to which YouTube belongs, gave the economic sanctions and the resulting trade rules as the reason, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US put the entire lower house of the Russian parliament on its sanctions list at the end of March. Duma president Vyatjeslav Volodin says this violates the rights of Russians.

“The United States wants the exclusive right to disseminate information. We cannot allow that.’ According to a Russian government spokesman, YouTube “dung its own grave”. There is a chance that Russia will block access to Google. The country has already done this with Instagram and Facebook.

A judge then decided that Russians should still be able to access social media. Parliament’s channel broadcasts debates and interviews with MPs. However, the video website blocked several Russian government channels in March. As a result, tensions between parent company Alphabet and Russia were already running high.

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