YouTube has reportedly blocked Duma TV, the Russian parliament's broadcasting channel, angering some Russian state officials. They say that YouTube will be dealing with restrictions.
Reporting from Reuters, Sunday (10/4/2022) on Saturday (9/4) a message on YouTube said that the Duma TV channel had been terminated for violating YouTube's terms of service.
Google-owned YouTube has come under pressure from Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor, and the country's officials were quick to respond to the ban decision.
"From the looks of it, YouTube has signed its own warrant. Save the content, transfer it to the Russian platform. And fast,"
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Telegram message.
The communications watchdog said it had asked Google to restore access to the Duma channel as soon as possible.
"American IT companies take a clear anti-Russian position in the information war that the West is waging against our country," the Roskomnadzor statement said.
Reuters said Google did not immediately respond to requests for response to blocking the Russian parliamentary channel.
Meanwhile, Duma spokesman Vyacheslav Volodon said YouTube's policies were further evidence of Washington DC's violation of rights and freedoms.
"America wants to get a monopoly on the promotion of information. We can't allow that to happen," Volodon said in Telegram.
Russia has been known to have restricted access to platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Russia had previously tried to ban the Telegram messaging application, which is now widely used by officials of the Red Bear Country. But the ban was lifted mid-2020.
Some Russian media called the move a capitulation, but Roskomnadzor said it was done because the founder of the Russian app, Pavel Durov, was ready to cooperate in fighting terrorism and extremism on the platform.