Russian authorities throttling YouTube, source tells Meduza

Update: The pro-Kremlin news site Gazeta.ru has reported that the Russian authorities are “planning to permanently block” YouTube in September, citing a source close to the Putin administration and a source in a company that collects data for law enforcement agencies. “Throughout July and August, we’ll see a decline: YouTube will slow down in some regions, lag in others, and could stop working entirely in some. And in September, the block will begin,” said the source close to the Putin administration. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that the authorities have any such plans and repeated Rostelecom’s explanation about technical problems.

The Russian authorities have begun slowing down YouTube, a source from the telecommunications industry has told Meduza.

Earlier on Friday, the state-controlled telecoms operator Rostelecom issued a statement warning users that YouTube may experience outages due to possible “technical problems with equipment owned by Google.” According to Meduza’s source, this explanation is “an attempt to shift responsibility” and the government has been deliberately slowing down the video site since Thursday.

The source added that Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal censorship agency, has the tools necessary to “throttle traffic” on its own. He speculated that Rostelecom issued its warning because users have already begun to notice a slowdown on YouTube.