The authorities and experts discuss two versions of the YouTube problems in Russia - the “wear” of Google servers and the artificial slowdown in the service. Which sounds more believable?

It seems that we already have a definite answer

Let's start with the official version. Why did Google suddenly have technical problems?

On July 12, the largest Russian telecommunication company Rostelecom warned of possible problems in the work of the YouTube video hosting (hereinafter, in the text for convenience, we will use the Russified version of the NETUB Service) in the country. Residents of Russia may encounter slow downloading rollers and low video resolution - regardless of the operator used. All this in Rostelecom was explained by the degradation of Google Global Cache - Google equipment installed "on the network infrastructure of the operator and peering joints ."

Google Global Cache (GGC) is a system designed to accelerate Google content delivery, including a video on YouTube. GGC servers are located in the networks of Internet providers around the world. This allows you to store the requested content closer to end users, without loading it each time from American servers. Thus, delays are reduced and the speed of access to data is increased (in the case of yutub - to the video).

Google really stopped supporting its servers in Russia. Due to the sanctions introduced after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Without support, servers gradually began to fail. According to ComNews, by the end of 2023, the number of GGC servers operating in Russia decreased from about 700 to 450.

Now - to the unofficial "censorship" version. Which seems to have already confirmed experts

The source of the "Medusa" in the telecommunications industry almost immediately after the appearance of the Message of Rostelecom called the operator’s insolvent version. According to him, the country began in the country with a focused slowdown in Utuub. With failures in the service of the service, according to our interlocutor, users in Russia began to collide on July 11. “So far, they are training at Rostelecom and Tele2,” the source who wished to remain unnamed.

Roskomnadzor has repeatedly slowed down the work of specific Internet services. In March 2021, he did this with Twitter (now it is a social network X), but already in May he partially stopped doing this. In February 2022, immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Roskomnadzor began to slow down Facebook. Today, the State Duma said that in the same way the country today complicates the access of users to the WhatsApp messenger.

From the research data of the Censored Planet project, the University of Michigan is known that Roskomnadzor used the specialized equipment of TSPU - technical means of counteract threats to slow down Twitter. It is installed in the networks of Internet providers and mobile communication operators and used to filter traffic and block prohibited resources. TSPU reacted to the domains associated with Twitter (like Twitter.com , Twimg.com and T.co ) in the title of data packages and stopped missing these packages when a certain speed limit was reached.

It turned out that such a technology is also used now to slow down. This was announced by Valdikss user, the founder of the project for bypassing Goodbyedpi locks and one of the co -authors of the Twitter slowdown in 2021. At the NTC.Party forum, dedicated to the study of Internet censorship, he said that almost all providers slow down the yutub for the domain *.doglevideo.com . At the same time, the filter has not yet been applied to Google IP addresses, including the IP addresses of the Google Global Cache servers. “[E] either a technical error or a feature that was not taken into account,” Valdikss summed up. “There is, of course, there are no technical problems in the operation of equipment.”

Since the version of the slowdown is confirmed, you need to be prepared for the fact that all this can turn into a lock

"Gazeta.ru" today has already announced the complete blocking of YouTube in September. A source close to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation told about this publication:

Throughout July - August, there will be some degradation, that is, in some regions, YouTube working conditions will worsen. In some, it will slow down, in some-to lay the site, somewhere the application will fall off. And in September, blocking will begin

The source of the publication in the company “engaged in the collection of information for power structures” confirmed this information.

Our main advice is the same - do not forget to install VPN

If you are faced with problems when viewing the yutub, install (or turn on, if already installed) VPN. It will help both with a slowdown in traffic, and with the full blocking of the service. The main thing is that your VPN provider himself fights the restrictions on Roskomnadzor, who has long declared war on the effective means of bypassing Russian blocking.

"Jellyfish"