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Russia Throttles YouTube Access Nationwide, MTS and Beeline Warn of Outages

Aug 1, 2024, 06:12 AM

Russia has initiated a mass throttling of YouTube, significantly slowing down access to the platform across the country. This move is part of a broader government campaign to control online content, which officials and telecom operators are attributing to Google. Major telecom providers MTS and Beeline have warned customers about potential YouTube access outages. The crackdown has also extended to Russian-occupied territories, including Crimea. In response, exiled opposition and independent media are preparing for further restrictions. Notably, Russia Today propagandist-in-chief Margo Simonyan declared that YouTube is no longer valuable, a significant shift given RT's previous reliance on the platform to measure its reach. Foreign Ministry official Andrey Nastasyin claimed that Washington controls the U.S. streaming service.