Declining quality of YouTube traffic will affect advertisers, consumers of artistic content will be affected less - State Duma committee head

MOSCOW. July 26 (Interfax) - The expected reduction in the speed of YouTube's operation in Russia will affect advertisers to a greater degree, Russian State Duma Information Policy Committee head Alexander Khinshtein said.

"It's important to understand that the resource will still remain accessible to Russian users. Those who watch artistic or educational content can continue doing so; a little more time will be needed to load it," Khinshtein said on his Telegram channel.

He said he believes that "advertisers' reaction to the reduction of traffic quality will most likely be the most sensitive, and it will become a serious problem for Google."

YouTube's loading speed has recently slowed down practically by 40% and may decrease by 70% by the end of next week, he said.

To resolve the situation, the company needs to build its own server centers in Russia, open an office and "reach an agreement with the U.S. authorities on lifting the anti-Russian sanctions on the supply of its equipment to Russia, or make legal payments for services provided by our data processing centers," Khinshtein said.

Google also needs to observe Russian laws and fulfil the requirements of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) to unblock the channels of Russian media outlets, bloggers, journalists, artists and public figures, Khinshtein said.