Blocking WhatsApp, YouTube in Russia not on agenda - digital development minister
KAZAN. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Blocking the WhatsApp online messaging service and the YouTube video hosting platform in Russia is not on the agenda, Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev said.
"It can be said that the issue of blocking YouTube and WhatsApp is not on the agenda," Shadayev told reporters during a Q&A session at the Kazan Digital Week forum on Wednesday.
In a statement published on its blog on September 12, WhatsApp announced the launch of a channel creation feature in 150 countries. In its commentary of September 14, Russia's telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor did not rule out blocking WhatsApp if the online service launches any "unfriendly channels."
"The emergence of unfriendly channels with prohibited information will instantly entail the demand to remove those channels or blocking the messenger if the demand is declined," the watchdog said in a statement when asked to comment on the information about the possible blocking of WhatsApp in Russia. Roskomnadzor recalled that the requirements of Russian laws apply to all companies, including online messengers and social media operating in Russia for Russia-based users. "Responsibility for incompliance with Russian laws directly depends on the administrations of such companies and their decisions," Roskomnadzor said in its statement in early September.
State Duma Information Policy Committee head Alexander Khinshtein said earlier that day that if WhatsApp launches Russian-language channels, it may be blocked in Russia. "I share the position of my colleague [Anton] Gorelkin that if WhatsApp launches Russian-language information channels, it will be right to review the attitude to this messenger, including even its blocking," Khinshtein said. "The anti-Russian nature of these channels cannot be doubted, because WA belongs to extremist company Meta [designated as an extremist organization and banned in Russia] with all that it implies," he said.
Shadayev last commented on the possibility of blocking YouTube early this year, saying that there were no such plans. Earlier on September 17, Khinshtein promised that there would be no blocking of YouTube in Russia, as there was no proper substitution, which is similar to what Shadayev said previously. Overall, like Google, YouTube currently "maintains quite a biased and politically motivated stance on Russia," he said.
Roskomnadzor in turn views YouTube as a key platform in terms of spreading false information about how Russia's special military operation in Ukraine is going and disseminating other destructive content. Apart from that, the watchdog is accusing the video hosting platform of censorship, counting dozens of instances where access has been restricted to either entire accounts or individual materials published by some Russian YouTube channels.