Novosibirsk City Hall banned a rally against the blocking of YouTube
The City Hall of Novosibirsk did not approve the rally against the blocking of YouTube, stating that it violates the Constitution. The refusal was published by the organizers of the action.
Officials claim that YouTube is one of the key platforms that spread fakes about the war in Ukraine and does not delete information of an extremist nature. This, according to the Novosibirsk City Hall, violates the article of the Constitution on the inadmissibility of inciting enmity.
Therefore, the goal of the rally declared by the organizers – disagreement with the demands of the authorities to limit access to social networks in Russia – also contradicts the Constitution, the mayor’s statement says.
Earlier, the authorities of Moscow, Chelyabinsk and Kazan did not allow actions against the slowdown of YouTube. According to the officials’ answers, the purpose of the rally in Kazan is also not in accordance with the law, there are still coronavirus restrictions in Moscow, and not a single free site was found in Chelyabinsk.
Russian users have been massively experiencing interruptions in the work of YouTube since the beginning of August: without VPN services, videos load slowly or do not load at all.
At the end of July, State Duma deputy from “United Russia” Alexander Khinshtein predicted the upcoming slowdown of YouTube by 70% due to his “anti-Russian policy”. At the same time, Roskomnadzor did not announce the slowdown of the service and did not include it in the list of prohibited social networks.
- After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, YouTube blocked many pro-Kremlin channels. Opposition media, on the contrary, continue to work on video hosting.
- From May to June 2024, YouTube blocked about 3,600 channels with Russian propaganda, which presumably became the reason for limiting the service’s work in Russia.
