The decrease in video loading speed on YouTube will not be due to an artificial slowdown in the video hosting service in Russia, but because the company itself has shut down some of its servers in the country and cannot pay for the services of Russian data centers. This is stated by the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Alexander Khinshtein.
This is how the deputy commented on his post yesterday that by the end of next week the speed of loading videos on YouTube will decrease by 70%. According to him, the “quality degradation” began because Google stopped servicing Russian servers after the start of the war in Ukraine and turned off some of them. In 2022, Google had about 700 servers in Russia, and by the end of next year there were 450 left, and this number “continues to decrease exponentially,” Khinshtein claims.
The second problem, according to the deputy, is that Google can no longer pay for data center services in the country due to sanctions and the bankruptcy of its Russian subsidiary. «I don't know the details: whether their servers are hosted in our data centers for free or the money goes through «gray» semi-criminal schemes. But in any case, it's all illegal and all participants understand this well,» Khinshtein writes.
The deputy believes that it would be possible to «turn a blind eye» to «gray schemes,» but YouTube «is pursuing an openly anti-Russian policy» — blocks channels of Russian bloggers, artists and journalistsand ignores the demands of Roskomnadzor. According to Khinshtein, «in the coming days» Russian data centers plan to stop working with Google under these «schemes», which will lead to a sharp drop in video download speeds.
Google «has nothing to stop» it from building its server centers in Russia and reaching an agreement with the US authorities to lift sanctions on the supply of equipment to the country, the deputy believes. At the same time, he pointed out that the Russian authorities «have every reason to apply coercive measures» until Google complies with Roskomnadzor's demands to unblock accounts.
Yesterday, Khinshtein called the artificial slowdown of YouTube «a forced step aimed against the administration of a foreign resource that still believes that it can violate and ignore our legislation with impunity.» His post said that after this, «the resource will see with its own eyes that the state has moved from persuasion to concrete steps.»
After Khinshtein's post, Deputy Anton Gorelkin suggested that due to the slowdown of YouTube, re-uploads of videos of «a hypothetical Mister Beast» will appear on Russian platforms — Rutube and VK.
«And I think that our platforms will take the same position that they currently take in relation to pirated films: no complaint from the copyright holder means no problem. Although it would be right to establish some mechanism for further legalization of content on the Russian platform for foreign bloggers. So that, if desired, Mr. Beast could gain control over his videos and continue to run his channel officially,» Gorelkin wrote.
Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Khinshtein's words, said: «I have nothing to add to what was said.» On July 12, he said that Russia «has no plans to restrict access to YouTube.»
Rostelecom previously claimed that the slowdown in YouTube in Russia is due to the wear and tear of Google Global Cache equipment, which stores requested videos closer to users, without downloading them each time from foreign servers. Information security experts disagree and say that the slowdown in the hosting service is due to deliberate actions by the authorities.