Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf reported major disruptions in the availability of the YouTube site on Thursday (8/8), as Russian authorities stepped up their criticism of the platform.
Sboi.rf said there were thousands of reported disruptions to YouTube in Russia. Users said they could only access YouTube through a virtual private network (VPN).
“YouTube is not working,” said one anonymous user in a comment on the site.
Reuters reporters in Russia were unable to access YouTube. The site is still available on some mobile devices.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Russia’s government communications watchdog Roskomnadzor also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
YouTube is one of the last major bastions of free expression on the Russian internet, where the site continues to feature material from Kremlin opponents that has largely been removed from other popular social media sites in Russia.
Download speeds from the site have slowed noticeably in recent weeks. Russian lawmakers have blamed YouTube owner Alphabet's Google for the problem, which the company has denied.
Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the parliamentary information policy committee, warned last month that YouTube speeds would drop by up to 70 percent.
He said the downgrade was “a necessary step, not directed against Russian users, but against foreign resource managers who still believe that they can violate and ignore our legislation with impunity.”
Khinshtein later explicitly blamed the slowdown on Google's failure to invest in Russian infrastructure, such as its local cache servers, something YouTube also denies.
A YouTube spokesperson said last week that it was aware of reports that some people were unable to access YouTube in Russia. This was not due to any technical issues on its part, YouTube said. (uh/ab)
