MOSCOW (AFP) – On Friday, Russia’s media regulator ordered that YouTube unlock a German-language channel of Russian official broadcaster RT, calling the action “destructive” censorship.
After eliminating the network’s German stations RT DE and Der Fehlende Part earlier this year, YouTube banned a new RT channel on Thursday.
RT, formerly known as Russia Today, announced that its freshly established “Auf Sendung” (On Air) channel has been stopped without explanation.
According to YouTube, the channel was suspended because RT was attempting to avoid the previous termination of RT DE and Der Fehlende Part with the debut of Auf Sendung.
Russia’s official media regulator Roskomnadzor announced on Friday that it had issued a letter to YouTube requesting that access to the channel be restored and an explanation for why it had been stopped.
“The letter states that the video hosting service’s harmful acts are unprecedented, breaking the main principles of free circulation of information and unrestricted access to it,” Roskomnadzor stated.
It went on to say that the action is “an act of censorship, which is forbidden by the Russian constitution.”
In September, Google-owned YouTube issued a warning to RT DE for breaking its coronavirus misinformation standards, and later took down two channels for violating user conditions.
The action infuriated Moscow, which accused YouTube of “censorship” and said the block was likely backed by German authorities at a time when the two nations’ diplomatic ties were fragile.
The new incident comes amid rising tensions between Russia and Germany, after a Berlin court convicted a Russian to life in prison earlier this week for a 2019 murder on German territory that Moscow is said to have ordered.
As a result of the verdict, Germany expelled two Russian diplomats. Moscow has warned Berlin to brace itself for punitive measures.
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