YouTube's action to block the broadcast of the Duma TV channel featuring Russia's lower house of parliament shows has received an uneasy response by the country's regulators, who have threatened to impose restrictions on the video streaming service.
Generally, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube is under pressure from Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor and the issue became even bigger when on April 9, the video streaming service blocked the Duma channel on the grounds of ‘termination for violating YouTube Services Company’.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in a statement in the Telegram messaging service platform confirmed the matter.
As a result, Russian regulators have asked Google to restore access to the Duma channel immediately.
At this time, Google has not responded.
Meanwhile, Duma spokesman Vyacheslav Volodin described YouTube's actions as evidence that the United States (US) was threatening human rights by stating that Washington was trying to monopolize information.
As is well known, the Russian government has blocked access to Twitter and Facebook as well as Instagram belonging to Meta Platform Inc since the invasion of Ukraine, and only the Telegram app is widely used there.
