The Kremlin has criticized the blocking of the German channels of the Russian broadcaster RT on the YouTube video platform. There are clear signs that laws of the Russian Federation have been violated, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow on Wednesday, according to the Tass state agency. There are even signs of a very gross violation “because it has to do with censorship, with the media’s hindering the dissemination of information,” said President Vladimir Putin. RT DE is the German offshoot of a broadcaster founded by the Russian state in 2005 and is currently only broadcast over the Internet in Germany. If the Russian supervisory authority comes to the conclusion that there has indeed been a violation of the law, then “of course we cannot and should not rule out the possibility that we will take measures to force this platform to comply with our laws”.
The media supervisory authority Roskomnadzor had previously threatened to block YouTube in Russia if the blocking of RT’s two German channels is not lifted.
YouTube accuses RT of having spread disinformation about the corona pandemic, which is not permitted according to community guidelines. For this reason, YouTube initially issued a “strike” to the RT channel – that is, withdrew its permission to upload new posts. The broadcaster said it had not been possible to upload any current videos for a week because YouTube prevented this. “During this suspension, RT DE tried to get around this restriction by using another YouTube channel to upload their videos,” said a YouTube spokesman. “As a result of this bypass attempt, both channels have now been terminated due to violations of the YouTube terms of use.” A spokesman for RT DE announced: RT DE sees itself wrongly accused and is currently examining “legal steps against the arbitrary termination”.
The Russian Foreign Office threatens to take countermeasures against German journalists
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the procedure an “unprecedented information attack that was committed with obvious tolerance, if not even at the insistence of the German side.” Evidence for this was not provided. At the same time, the Foreign Office threatened countermeasures against German journalists in Russia, but without being specific. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert emphasized on Wednesday in the federal press conference that the federal government or government representatives had nothing to do with the lock. “Because there are different stories on Russian channels right now, I want to say very clearly: This is a decision by YouTube,” said Seibert. Anyone who claims otherwise, “is tinkering with a conspiracy theory”.
According to RT, the ban affects more than 600,000 subscribers. In addition to RT DE, the “alternative channel” with the name “The missing part” is also affected. RT, formerly Russia Today, is repeatedly criticized as the Kremlin’s propaganda tool for spreading conspiracy narratives and disinformation on behalf of the Russian state. RT has been trying for a long time to obtain a broadcasting license for Germany.