The U.S. State Department believes that restrictions on YouTube in Russia indicate that Moscow lacks confidence in the legitimacy of its actions.
According to Voice of America, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller made this statement.
"We have seen how Russia has acted over some time, accelerating after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They are consistently trying to restrict Russian citizens' access to information about what their government is doing," Miller said.
He emphasized that Washington condemns any suppression of free speech in Russia and called on the Kremlin to stop blocking access to information.
"As we have said before, it is not exactly a sign of confidence in the legitimacy of your actions when you restrict your own citizens' access to information about those actions," Miller added.
On August 8, it was reported that thousands of users in Russia complained that the video service YouTube was not accessible. The day before, on August 7, Russian media reported that the authorities in Russia decided to throttle YouTube to 128 kbps.
