Access Now and Coalition Claim YouTube Blocks Content for Russia
YouTube should stop helping the Russian government censor news and human rights organizations on the platform, Access Now and a coalition of Russian advocates wrote in a letter Tuesday. They claimed YouTube has blocked anti-war content from groups like Roskomsvoboda…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
and journalists Ekaterina Kotrikadze and Tikhon Dzyadko. Access Now signed the letter with Roskomsvoboda, OVD-Info, Greenhouse of Social Technologies and Reporters Without Borders. YouTube unlocked at least three censored videos on the platform, but the content remains unavailable in Russia, they said. YouTube said in a statement Tuesday that it regularly reviews takedown requests from governments all over the world. If the company believes a government is trying to silence citizens, then YouTube pushes back, it said. “We defend these cases vigorously, and have previously even been fined for our non-compliance, including by the Russian government,” YouTube said. The platform “has remained available in Russia” throughout the war with Ukraine, and the company regularly removes channels and content from Russian-linked groups spreading false information about the conflict, YouTube said.