On February 7, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that YouTube’s move to block the channels Russian regional television companies is “arbitrary”:
"The American video hosting platform YouTube has launched a fresh wave of account bans targeting Russian media. This time regional Russian news channels have been targeted for censorship. Without any prior notice, access to dozens of regional branches of VGTRK was unilaterally terminated. …
What is this? It is the ruthless weeding out of any seedlings of dissent in the media space. Arbitrary actions and political censorship..."
The characterization of YouTube's actions as “arbitrary” is false.
Since Russia's launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, YouTube, a private company owned by Google, has regularly blocked Russian state media outlets for violating its terms of service.
Among other Russian accounts, YouTube blocked those of the Rossiya-24 and Channel One state television channels; the English-language channels RT and Sputnik; the channels of Russia’s State Duma, foreign and defense ministries; and the accounts of Kremlin propagandists Vladimir Solovyov and Nikita Mikhalkov.
On March 1, 2022, less than a week after the invasion, YouTube announced:
“Today, we began blocking RT & Sputnik’s YouTube channels across Europe. Since Russia began its invasion in Ukraine, we’ve been focused on removing violative content & connecting people to trusted news & information.”
On March 11, 2022, the company stated that YouTube Community Guidelines (the platform's rules) prohibit content "denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events.”
It added that it would continue to monitor and remove channels and videos promoting the war with Ukraine: “Our teams continue to closely monitor the situation, and are ready to take further action.”
Earlier this month, on February 6, YouTube blocked more than 40 channels of the regional branches of VGTRK, the Russian state-owned broadcasting company.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s first definition of “arbitrary” is “existing or coming about seemingly at random or by chance or as a capricious and unreasonable act of will.” As a legal term, “arbitrary,” according to Merriam-Webster, means “depending on individual discretion (as of a judge) and not fixed by law.”
YouTube did not block the Russian channels arbitrarily, but according to its rules as a private company.
VGTRK’s regional TV channels, which YouTube blocked on February 6, regularly broadcast reports that positively characterize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and show the Russian military firing from artillery, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns into civilian areas in Ukraine.
For example, on December 24, 2023, the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "Murman", based in the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk, broadcast an appeal from members of the Russian Army’s 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade serving in Ukraine:
“We express our gratitude to our patriots, our fellow countrymen, and also to our governor Andrei Vladimirovich Chibis for the equipment provided... Victory will definitely be ours; we will win,” said one of the rifle brigade’s armed members.
“Murman” broadcast the segment and then posted it on all of its social media accounts, including YouTube.
YouTube’s actions in relation to the Russian state media channels can be called “censorship,” at least as it is defined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
According to the ACLU, censorship is “the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are ‘offensive’,” and it “can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups.”
“Censorship by the government is unconstitutional,” the ACLU added.
In December 2020, Russia’s State Duma passed a bill allowing the government media regulator, Roskomnadzor, to block, slow down or fine YouTube, Facebook or other social media that allegedly censor Russian media.
Over the last three years, Russian politicians and officials have regularly suggested that YouTube will be blocked once Russia creates an alternative to it. At the same time, many have said that before then, blocking YouTube would do more harm than good.