YouTube must stop helping Russia censor freedom of expression, experts say

YouTube must protect freedom of expression in Russia and “take clear and decisive action” against authorities who block orders.

This is the message that more than twenty local and international civil society organizations shared via an open letter on Monday, May 28, 2024 (see tweet below). This comes amid a worrying spike in censorship across the platform, with Russian censorship organization Roskomnadzor targeting several human rights YouTube channels and their content.

While the best VPN services can still help Russians bypass certain restrictions, YouTube’s geo-blocking policy and Russian law make this circumvention software less reliable, experts told me. This is why the signatories urge YouTube and its parent company Google to challenge Roskomnadzor’s requests, which go against international human rights standards, with all available legal means.

“We look forward to your consideration of this issue and are committed to dialogue and collaboration to find solutions that benefit the entire YouTube community,” wrote the organizations, which include Access Now, Roskomsvoboda and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). ).

The stakes are especially high when you consider that Natalia Krapiva, Senior Tech Legal Counsel at Access Now, say itYouTube is one of the most influential platforms for independent information in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This means, she argues, that Google “has a moral obligation to oppose unjust laws that make Google complicit in human rights violations.”

However, it seems that the Big Tech giant is failing to fulfill this moral obligation. Commenting on this, Sarkis Darbinyan, cyber lawyer and head of Roskomvosvoboda’s legal practice, describes YouTube’s behavior in Russia as duplicitous.

The Google-owned company refused to do business in the country and closed its Moscow office. On the other hand, however, the country still obeys the orders of the Russian censors.

“Helping Roskomnadzor silence anti-war voices targeting Russians and promoting censorship in the country seems like the height of hypocrisy given the values ​​the company itself demonstrates and defends,” Darbinyan told me. “We’d like to believe they haven’t figured it out yet – and that’s why we’re asking the giant to hear us.”

Censorship on YouTube in Russia is increasing

Let’s look at some data. Since February 2024, YouTube has blocked several videos about evading military service in Russia and anti-war sentiments, including content from the human rights channels “Dozor in Volgograd” (viewing in Volgograd) and “Shkola Prizivnika” (conscript school). Other human rights channels, including Roskomsvoboda and OVD-Info (two of the signatories), have also been notified of blocking threats.

These incidents have intensified recently because, Darbinyan told me, Russian lawmakers have significantly expanded the list of banned content in recent years.

Russia VPN services also came on the radar. From March, a new law will criminalize the distribution of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions. This means that authorities now have the right to censor VPN tutorials and similar content.

That’s because a VPN, short for Virtual Private Network, can be used to bypass online geo-restrictions by spoofing your IP address. At the same time, it also encrypts internet connections to increase users’ anonymity online.

“The impact of the new law is already being felt,” Darbinyan told me, adding that this type of information is increasingly disappearing from the Russian Internet (RuNet), with many website operators deleting everything themselves for fear of being blocked.

As mentioned, the Roskomsvoboda channel itself has also been affected by a request for removal from YouTube for such a video (see the video in Russian here). The team refused to comply and the video is still available at the time of writing.

This is all pretty serious. VPNs are crucial in Russia because they have the power to reconnect a growing sliver of RuNet, Darbinyan explains. On the one hand, there is the very limited internet under the control of Roskomnadzor and state-owned companies. On the other hand, the free internet that journalists and bloggers in exile are trying to build. VPNs then act as smaller bridges between the two networks.

This is why the Kremlin has increasingly tried to block its use over the years. Darbinyan confirmed that Roskomnadzor continues its massive hunt for VPN services to this day.

“These bridges are getting smaller and less stable,” he told me, adding that YouTube’s geoblocking policy in this area is also not very transparent and clear.

The role of Big Tech

So what can YouTube, Google and ultimately every foreign Big Tech company do to make a difference here?

According to Darbinyan, YouTube should start stopping the practice of shadow blocking at the request of Russian authorities. This activity aims to exclude certain videos from the algorithm’s recommendations so that users cannot find them. He also believes that blocking orders coming from countries notorious for restricting citizens’ freedoms should be carefully analyzed for compliance with international law.

“Companies can no longer say that it is none of their business, that they are following the laws of the land and trying to comply with the law,” Darbinyan said. ‘We dare to remind Big Tech that international soft law recommends that private companies not contribute to negative human rights impacts as part of their activities.

“And of course we can’t forget that assessing the impact on human rights is the first thing Big Tech should think about when designing their global policies.”