“Rosteleset” complained to FAS about the uneven slowdown of YouTube

Association of regional providers “Rosteleset” complained to the Federal Antimonopoly Service about discrimination due to “uneven slowdown of YouTube”. RBC learned about this.

The complaint states that when using wired Internet, access to which is offered by providers, YouTube loads worse than when using mobile Internet. Because of this, the number of user complaints about the work of providers “increased many times over.”

“Rosteleset” notes that subscribers increasingly switch to the services of cellular operators only because of the quality of YouTube. According to the providers, the uneven deterioration of its performance violates the rules of the free market, since access to the video platform is “either a competitive advantage or a competitive limitation.”

In this regard, “Rosteleset” demands to open a criminal case and punish those guilty of violating the antimonopoly legislation. Since YouTube is not included in the list of prohibited or restricted access, “Roskomnadzor and its subordinate Main Radio Frequency Center do not have the right to take actions to limit access to information on their own initiative,” the complaint states.

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.

In mid-July, Rostelecom warned that YouTube might start working poorly due to “wear and tear on Google’s servers installed in Russia.” Later, the Google corporation denied its involvement in the problems with access to YouTube in Russia.

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”. According to him, this “forced step” will affect only desktop versions so far.

• 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.