Russia demands YouTube restore RT's German broadcast channel
Russia’s media regulator has warned that it could curtail or block access to YouTube unless the American tech giant restores the "RT auf Sendung" channel. The platform deleted RT DE’s newly launched service on Thursday.
Regulator Roskomnadzor, has sent a notice to Google, YouTube’s parent company demanding that the platform lift all restrictions on the channel, which allowed internet audiences to watch RT’s newly launched around-the-clock German-language broadcasts live.
YouTube took down RT auf Sendung (RT On the Air) five hours after it began showing content. As a result, Roskomnadzor blasted YouTube’s “unprecedented” actions as “an act of censorship” that violates Moscow's law.
If the platform fails to comply, it could receive a formal warning and then be “partially or completely” blocked in Russia, the regulator warned.
YouTube said it deleted the channel for what it considered a violation of its terms of service. It later explained that owners of previously deleted accounts are barred from launching and operating new ones.
The platform took down two of RT DE’s accounts in September, over what it claimed was a violation of community guidelines for alleged “medical misinformation” in four videos, without elaborating further or providing specific examples.
RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, called the move at the time a “declaration of media war against Russia by Germany.”
Before its removal, RT DE was the fourth-most influential German-language news source on the platform, surpassing Deutsche Welle and a number of other news broadcasters, according to Tubular Labs.
You can WATCH the live broadcast of the new channel on RT DE’s official website.
