YouTube traffic in Russia being disrupted due to ‘operational issues’, leading ISP announces

Russia’s largest internet service provider Rostelecom warned YouTube users in the country on Friday that they may face service disruptions affecting download speed and video quality due to “operational issues” with the Google Cache System, which accelerates the loading of content from Google services in Russia.

The disruption could be part of a deliberate campaign by Russian authorities to reduce YouTube traffic, an anonymous source in Russia’s telecoms sector told independent Russian outlet Meduza on Friday.

Citing a Kremlin source, state-affiliated news site Gazeta.ru reported that YouTube traffic speed would continue to deteriorate throughout July and August, with a complete blocking of the Google-owned video sharing platform expected in September.

At a press briefing on Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the Russian authorities had any intention of blocking YouTube, instead attributing the traffic disruptions solely to “a problem with equipment that has not been updated in any way for more than two years”.

A number of Russian regions have also started to impede the popular messaging service WhatsApp, Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee, told state-affiliated newspaper Parlamentskaya Gazeta on Friday. “The next step could very well be blocking,” he added.

Despite being owned by Meta, which was banned outright when it was deemed “an extremist organisation” by the Russian government in March 2022, WhatsApp has not yet been blocked in Russia, unlike the company’s two other main platforms Facebook and Instagram.