State Department: Restriction of access to YouTube in Russia shows authorities’ uncertainty about legitimacy of their actions
The U.S. State Department believes that the restriction of access to YouTube in Russia indicates that Moscow is not confident in the legitimacy of its actions.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Voice of America, as stated by State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
"We've seen Russia act for some time and... at an accelerated pace since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. And what they've done is to try and consistently shut down the ability of Russian citizens to access information about what their government is doing," Miller said.
He added that Washington continues to condemn the oppression of freedom of speech in Russia.
"We continue to call on the Kremlin to stop blocking access to information for its own people. And, as we've said before, it's not exactly a sign of confidence in the legitimacy of your operations when you suppress the ability of your own citizens to access information about those operations."
Earlier today, Russian Internet monitoring services reported a massive failure in the availability of YouTube video hosting.
Earlier it was reported that Russia had started blocking access to YouTube.
YouTube is one of the last major platforms where freedom of speech is preserved on the Russian Internet, where materials opposing the Kremlin continue to be posted, which have been largely removed from other popular social networks in Russia.
