Translated material
The main ways to bypass YouTube blocks in Russia
Service traffic reached a minimum by the end of 2024
YouTube traffic in Russia continues to fall. Experts call what is happening an actual blocking of the service. This began in August 2024, when users first encountered a slowdown in the service - Roskomnadzor explained this by the fact that the service allegedly violated Russian law. “Kholod” has collected current ways to bypass YouTube blocking, which are suggested by experts.
YouTube users have been recording service outages since August 2024. At first the problems were mainly with Wi-Fi, but recently this also affected the mobile Internet. So, if in August, according to Mediascope, YouTube was watched by 96 million Russians, then in October the audience reach was 47 million. On December 23, YouTube traffic in Russia fell to a record low of 20%, and in some locations the figure dropped to 1%. Internet censorship in Russia has reached its peak since the beginning of the war.
Against the backdrop of YouTube's record slowdown, the number of fraudulent offers of accelerator services has increased , cybersecurity experts said. The publication's source said that the number of such publications has increased 2-3 times over the past six months.
VPN
This is the simplest and most effective way. Experts advise taking your VPN choice seriously and not clicking on links that aren't trustworthy. You must download VPN applications from the App Store, Google Play or from official websites ( for example , Mullvad, Amnezia, Psiphon, RedShield, Out). The human rights media project OVD-Info recommends the VPNLove platform from Roskomsvoboda, and the Kovcheg telegram channel recommends RedLine VPN. In addition, the ZaTelecom telegram channel has a free VPN Generator. The author of this channel, IT expert Mikhail Klimarev, said that recently interest in VPN services in Russia has increased at least several times.
QUIC protocol
The experimental QUIC protocol can speed up video loading on YouTube, reports user “T—Zh” Evgeniy Kuzmin. To do this, copy the command chrome://flags/#enable-quic; into the address bar of Google Chrome; on the page that opens, select Enabled in the list to the right of the command; reload the browser. In Yandex Browser, enter browser://flags/#enable-quic in the address bar. However, with this protocol, videos are only downloaded in low quality.
Main events of 2024 Death of Navalny, seizure of the Kursk region and attack on Trump. What was the past year like? World 13 min read
Browser extensions
The Dozhd TV channel has an extension called Stream , but thanks to it you can only watch videos on YouTube for a few hours a day. The publication "Groza" also talks about the expansion of Censor Tracker.
GoodbyeDPI program
This is a free, open-source program from the developer ValdikSS, which runs on Windows, reports “Paper”. It helps to bypass blocking from Internet providers using DPI technologies. The program cheats DPI by mangling queries or hostnames.
Change DNS
The Ateo Digital telegram channel recommends trying to change the DNS server. To do this, on your smartphone you need to go to the Wi-Fi settings, select your network and enter the new DNS manually, for example, 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) or 8.8.8.8 (Google). On a computer, this can be done in the network settings in the “IPv4” section.
In order not to miss the main materials of “Cold”, subscribe to our social networks!
Kholod needs your help to continue working
We continue to work, resisting bans and repression, to preserve independent journalism for the Russia of the future. How do we do this? Thanks to the support of thousands of caring people.
What do we dream about?
About the simple and at the same time complex - the opportunity to work further. Life will change beyond recognition many times, but we, the editors of Kholod, want to stay close to you, our readers.
Support Kholod today so we can continue to do what we do best - be independent media. Thank you!
Author: Kholod editors Photo: Pexels