If you are in Russia and are experiencing problems loading YouTube videos, it is not due to your internet connection or a technical problem. Recent reports revealed alleged Russian plans to slow the video platform by 70% by the end of next week.
There also appear to be plans to “permanently block YouTube” in September, an anonymous source told the Russian Independent news outlet Meduza back on July 12, 2024.
Of more than 93 million users In the entire country, YouTube is currently the last Western social media platform that works in Russia. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are only accessible via one of the best VPN services. Worse still, using these circumvention tools is becoming increasingly dangerous in the country.
Why is YouTube restricted in Russia?
As Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the Russian parliamentary committee on technology, wrote on Telegram on Thursday, July 25, the measure is a “consequence of the host’s anti-Russian policy.” He added that the measure will only affect desktop users.
In particular, Khinshtein argued that YouTube “consistently removes channels of public figures (bloggers, journalists, artists) with views that differ from the Western point of view.”
However, international civil society organizations could not disagree more with such a statement. Last May, more than 20 organizations urged Google’s parent company to stop helping Russia censor free speech, lamenting a surge in anti-war videos and channels blocked since February.
In fact, YouTube’s throttling reportedly began two weeks before Khinshtein’s post, on July 11 to be exact.
Russian authorities deliberately slowed down @YouTube, contrary to Rostelecom’s claims that speed issues were due to equipment wear and tear. Expert activist @ValdikSS confirmed this by testing access speeds to YouTube content via different domain names1/5 pic.twitter.com/dw0hat0GpOJuly 12, 2024
However, Russian authorities initially denied any involvement with the telecom operator Rostelcom blames the failure due to some technical problems.
A day later, a source close to the presidential administration confirmed to the Gazeta.Ru news site that Russia plans to “finally block YouTube in September.”
Russian digital rights organisation Roskomsvoboda has confirmed to Ny Breaking that at the time of writing it is still possible to watch videos, but that issues arise as the quality of the videos increases.
“If the censors fail to achieve their goal (which is most likely to unblock and block certain channels), there is a high probability that YouTube will be blocked completely,” Stanislav Shakirov, CTO at Roskomsvoboda, told me.
Shakirov suggests that the ultimate goal of the authorities is to replace YouTube with Russian alternatives such as VK Media or RuTube in order to have more control over content. He added: “Those who want to watch independent political content will watch YouTube with a VPN.”
Can a VPN for Russia help?
A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that encrypts your internet connections to increase your online privacy. At the same time, it also spoofs your real IP address to fool your internet service provider (ISP) into thinking you’re browsing from a completely different country in no time. That last skill is exactly what you need to bypass government restrictions and other geo-restrictions.
As we mentioned, other popular social media platforms are blocked in Russia, as are an increasing number of websites, including many news sources and even official sites of VPN providers.
As the use of Russian VPNs grows in importance, authorities are actively cracking down on them. VPN services have been the target of censorship campaigns for years, with a new law coming into effect in March criminalizing the dissemination of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions.
Earlier in July, around 25 popular VPN apps disappeared from the country’s Apple App Store, with experts fearing that the Google Play Store could soon be the next target.
Did you know?
Over the years, Russian authorities have temporarily blocked popular VPN providers, sometimes with the help of U.S. tech giants. In 2022, for example, Google was forced to remove more than 36,000 URLs linking to VPN services, VPN provider Surfshark reported at the time.
While it’s becoming increasingly difficult to download a VPN app, there are still ways to bypass restrictions.
“There are still working VPNs available in the Apple App Store that you can install and that will allow you to bypass censorship,” Shakirov told me. “Also, 95% of Russian users use Android, not iPhone.”
As a rule of thumb, I recommend downloading as many VPN apps as possible. That way, you can hop from one service to another in case of blocks. I recommend checking out our dedicated guide on the best free VPN services on the market to get the safest freebies out there. Be careful though, only a handful of free VPNs are safe to use in Russia.
Roskomsvoboda has even developed its own VPN product, Amnezia Free, which you can also set up on your own server as a self-hosted VPN. “There are also a couple of VPN services that focus on Russia: RedShield and Xeovo,” Shakirov said.
If you are having trouble downloading your chosen VPN, I would recommend using sideloading capabilities on an Android device. You should also be on the lookout for alternative installation pages and services. For example, one of the victims of the latest VPN censorship campaign on the Apple App Store, Le VPN, a special service launched which connects you to secret servers via third-party open-source software and obfuscated VPN connections.
VPNs aren’t the only solutions either, so try some alternatives. For example, Tor Browser is a good option, as it routes your internet traffic through at least three layers of encryption while spoofing your IP location. Likewise, FreeBrowser is a similar tool that you can use on Android devices to grant access to geo-restricted content.