If you're in Russia and having trouble loading YouTube videos, it's not your internet connection or a technical glitch that's to blame. Recent reports revealed Russia's alleged plans to slow down the video-sharing platform by up to 70% by the end of next week.
Plans to “permanently block” YouTube in September also appear to be in the cards, an anonymous source told independent Russian news outlet Meduza on July 12, 2024.
With over 93 million users across the country, YouTube is currently the last Western social media platform working in Russia. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter cannot be accessed unless one of the best VPN services is used. Worse still, the use of these circumvention tools is becoming increasingly precarious in the country.
Why is YouTube restricted in Russia?
As the chairman of the Russian parliamentary committee on technology, Alexander Khinshtein, wrote on Telegram on Thursday, July 25, the move is a “consequence of the host country's anti-Russian policy.” He also added that the measure will only affect desktop users.
Specifically, Khinshtein said that YouTube “systematically removes channels of our public figures (bloggers, journalists, artists) with positions that differ from the Western point of view.”
However, international civil societies could not disagree more with that statement. Last May, more than 20 organizations urged Google's parent company to stop helping Russia censor free speech, deploring the rise in anti-war videos and channels blocked since February.
Not only that, but YouTube's throttling reportedly began two weeks before Khinshtein's post: July 11, to be precise.
Russian authorities have started deliberately slowing down @YouTube, contrary to Rostelecom's claims that the speed issues were due to equipment wear. Expert activist @ValdikSS confirmed this by testing the speed of access to YouTube content via different domain names1/5 pic.twitter.com/dw0hat0GpOJuly 12, 2024
Russian authorities initially denied involvement, although telecoms operator Rostelcom blamed the outage on technical problems.
A day later, a source close to the presidential administration confirmed to the news site Gazeta.Ru that Russia plans to “finally block YouTube in September.”
Russian digital rights group Roskomsvoboda has confirmed to TechRadar that while it is still possible to watch videos at the time of writing, issues are occurring as video quality increases.
“If the censors fail to achieve their goals (which are likely to unblock and block certain channels), the possibility of a complete YouTube block is very high,” Stanislav Shakirov, technical director of Roskomsvoboda, told me.
Shakirov suggests that the authorities' ultimate goal is to replace YouTube with Russian alternatives such as VK media or RuTube in order to have more control over content. He added: “Those who want to watch independent political content will watch YouTube using a VPN.”
Can a Russian VPN help?
A virtual private network (VPN) is a security software that encrypts your internet connections to enhance online privacy. At the same time, it also spoofs your real IP address to trick your Internet Service Provider (ISP) into thinking you're browsing from a completely different country in no time. This last ability is exactly what you need to bypass government-imposed limitations and other geographic restrictions.
As we mentioned, other popular social media platforms are blocked in Russia, along with an increasing number of websites including many news outlets and even official VPN provider sites.
While the use of Russian VPNs is becoming increasingly crucial, authorities are in fact cracking down on their use. VPN services have been the target of censorship campaigns for many years, and in March a new law came into force that criminalises the dissemination of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions.
In early July, around 25 popular VPN apps disappeared from Apple's App Store in the country. Experts fear that the Google Play Store could soon become the next target.
Did you know?
Over the years, Russian authorities have temporarily blocked popular VPN providers, sometimes with the help of US-based tech giants. In 2022, for example, Google was forced to delist over 36,000 URLs linking to VPN services, VPN provider Surfshark reported at the time.
However, even though it is becoming increasingly difficult to download a VPN app, there are still some ways to bypass restrictions.
“There are still working VPNs in the Apple App Store that you can install to bypass censorship,” Shakirov told me. “Plus, 95% of Russian users are on Android, not iPhone.”
As a general rule, I recommend downloading as many VPN apps as possible. This way, you'll be able to switch from one service to another in case of blocks. I recommend checking out our dedicated guide to the best free VPN services on the market for the safest free services out there. But be warned, only a handful of free VPNs are safe to use in Russia.
Roskomsvoboda has even developed its own VPN product, Amnezia Free, which can also be installed on one's own server as a self-hosted VPN. “There are also a couple of VPN services that focus on Russia: RedShield and Xeovo,” Shakirov says.
If you have trouble downloading your chosen VPN, I suggest you use the sideloading features on an Android device. You should also look for alternative installation sites and services. For example, one of the victims of the latest VPN censorship campaign on Apple's App Store, Le VPN, launched a special service that connects you to some secret servers using third-party open-source software and obfuscated VPN connections.
VPNs aren't the only solutions, so you can try some alternatives as well. Tor Browser, for example, is a good option as it reroutes internet traffic through at least three layers of encryption and spoofs your IP location. Likewise, FreeBrowser is a similar tool you can use on Android devices to grant access to geo-restricted content.
