YouTube must protect freedom of expression in Russia and “take clear and decisive action” against authorities who block orders.
This is the message that more than 20 local and international civil society organizations shared through an open letter on Monday, May 28, 2024 (see tweet below). This comes amid a worrying rise in censorship across the platform, with Russian censorship body Roskomnadzor targeting several human rights YouTube channels and their content.
While the best VPN services can still help Russians bypass some restrictions, YouTube's geo-blocking policy and Russian law make this bypass software less reliable, experts told me. For this reason, the signatories urge YouTube and its parent company, Google, to challenge with all available legal means Roskomnadzor's requests that go against international human rights standards.
“We look forward to your consideration of this issue and are committed to dialogue and collaboration to find solutions that benefit the entire YouTube community,” wrote the organizations, which include Access Now, Roskomsvoboda and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), among others.
RSF, @accessnow and several organizations urge @Youtube not to help #Russia censor independent media channels threatened with blocking by the platform for failure to comply with obligations imposed by their iniquitous status as foreign agents. https://t.co/ 1hBIUoWETZMay 28, 2024
The stakes are high considering that, as Natalia Krapiva, senior technology counsel at Access Now, put it, YouTube is one of the most influential independent information platforms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This means, she maintains, that Google has “a moral duty to resist unjust laws that make it complicit in human rights violations.”
However, it appears that the Big Tech giant is failing in this moral duty. Sarkis Darbinyan, cyber lawyer and head of Roskomvosvoboda's legal practice, comments that YouTube's behavior in Russia is misleading.
The Google-owned company refused to do business in the country and closed its Moscow office. On the other hand, he continues to obey the orders of the Russian censors.
“Helping Roskomnadzor silence anti-war voices directed at Russians and promote censorship in the country seems the height of hypocrisy, given the values that the company itself demonstrates and defends,” Darbinyan told me. “We would like to believe that they have not realized it yet, and that is why we ask the giant to listen to us.”
YouTube censorship in Russia is on the rise
Let's look at some data. Since February 2024, YouTube has blocked several videos about draft evasion in Russia and anti-war sentiments, including content from the human rights channels “Dozor in Volgograd” (Watch in Volgograd) and “Shkola Prizivnika” (School of recruits). Other human rights channels, including Roskomsvoboda and OVD-Info (two of the signatories), have also been notified about the blocking of threats.
These incidents have intensified lately because, Darbinyan told me, Russian lawmakers have significantly expanded the list of prohibited content in recent years.
Russian VPN services also appeared on the radar. Starting in March, a new law makes it a crime to spread information about ways to circumvent Internet restrictions. This means that authorities now have the right to censor VPN tutorials and similar content.
Did you know?
On May 21, 2024, YouTube unlocked At least three of the aforementioned videos were censored amid growing pressure among Russian independent media. Despite this, experts maintain that these videos “are still hidden from those who try to look for them in Russia.”
This is because a VPN, short for virtual private network, can be used to bypass geo-restrictions online by spoofing your IP address. At the same time, it also encrypts Internet connections to increase user anonymity online.
“[The new law’s] “The impact is already being felt,” Darbinyan told me, adding that this type of information continues to disappear from the Russian Internet (RuNet) and many website administrators delete everything themselves for fear of being blocked.
As mentioned, the Roskomsvoboda channel itself also received a removal request from YouTube for such a video (watch the video in Russian here). The team refused to comply and the video is still available as of this writing.
This is all quite serious. VPNs are crucial in Russia as they have the power to reconnect a growing breakaway RuNet, Darbinyan explained. On the one hand, there is the highly restricted network under the control of Roskomnadzor and state-owned companies. On the other, the free Internet that journalists and bloggers in exile are trying to build. VPNs then act as smaller bridges between the two networks.
This is why the Kremlin has increasingly tried to block its use over the years. Darbinyan confirmed that Roskomnadzor continues its massive search for VPN services to this day.
“These bridges are getting smaller and less stable,” he told me, adding that YouTube's geo-blocking policy is also not very transparent and clear on this part.
The role of big technologies
So what can YouTube, Google, and ultimately any big foreign tech company do to make a difference?
According to Darbinyan, YouTube should start by ending the practice of blocking shadow content at the request of Russian authorities. This activity aims to exclude certain videos from the algorithm's recommendations so that users cannot find them. He also believes that blocking orders coming from countries known for limiting citizens' freedoms must be carefully analyzed to ensure compliance with international law.
“Companies can no longer say it's not their business, that they follow the laws of the country and try to respect them,” Darbinian said. “We dare to remind Big Tech that international soft law recommends that private companies avoid contributing to adverse human rights impacts as part of their operations.
“And, of course, we must remember that assessing the impact on human rights is the first thing big technology companies should think about when developing their global policies.”
