While I understand people’s initial reaction to think this is a positive thing, I don’t believe it is. The less free speech and media the Russian people have access to, the more control Putins propaganda machine has.
Practically all russians have had access to fully uncensored YT just one click away on their smartphones for over a decade (until today).
That didn't really change anything. Russia's problems lie in the attitude of the overwhelming majority of its people, not in the lack of access to information.
They make a conscious and fully informed choice to be genocidal imperialists and embrace authoritarianism.
Russia's problems lie in the attitude of the overwhelming majority of its people, not in the lack of access to information.
They make a conscious and fully informed choice to be genocidal imperialists and embrace authoritarianism.
"they"?
what happens to dissidents in Putin's Russia? It's easy to criticize a repressed population when you're not risking anything.
were all U.S. citizens responsible for the invasion of iraq? In U.S. where you don't disappear for criticising the government and it's choices, what difference did that freedom of speech make for Iraqis?
Where in the so called "west" do people keep buying from Putin's Russia through cloaked trade?
while we're on the subject of "genocidal imperialists embracing authoritarianism", who are the greatest sponsors of one of the longest running apartheid regime? Is "the attitude of the overwhelming majority of its people" the cause of this genocidal apartheid?
nuances! "Overwhelming majority" is just trying to get by. Most people are not power hungry psychopaths. If Putin, Netanyahu and some more of their ilk died today, world would be a better place tomorrow.
fuck this! it's time to go offline and read a decent book.
What about so called russian "dissidents"? Navalniy and his team openly supported the annexation of Crimea (and destruction of Ukrainian and Crimean Tartar culture).
The recently exchanged "dissidents" also showed their true colours by supporting the annexation of currently occupied territories in Ukraine.
We are not discussing US right now! The US did not annex Basra state, steal all the local children, force everyone to speak English and send anyone caught talking Arabic to a torture chamber; all with support of somewhere between 65% to 85% of their population.
The overwhelming majority of Russians are genocidal imperialists. They support invasions of foreign countries, annexations, attempts at elimatining local language and culture and setting up mass torture camps for anyone opposed to the yoke of russian degeneracy.
The "trying to get by" pitch is a ruse. Both qualitative and quantitative research (different methodologies, including ones that attempt to account for preference falsification) show this is not true and that on an outcome basis, the overwhelming majority of russians are indeed genocidal imperialists.
Fuck off with your xenophobia-biased opinions.
If you actually spent any amount of time communicating with people in Russia, you’d realise the overwhelming majority are not genocidal imperialists.
The overwhelming majority of Russians I’ve spoken to do not support the ongoing war, and would prefer if Ukraine was left alone.
I’d be interested in seeing where you’re pulling these extrapolated statistics from, including the demographics of the people who were surveyed.
If 7/10 Texans oppose abortion, does that mean 70% of the country believe the same thing?
The US did not annex Basra state
Of course not. But the US is actively funding a genocide in palestine and many similar atrocities around the globe. This empire has a long history of colonialism, imperialism, genocide, slavery, racism, war, etc. The overwhelming majority of USAians are also genocidal imperialists. Just listen to NPR. Just look at the presidential candidates.
I'm not saying the alt-empire is any better. I'm saying that empire is the same everywhere. All of these politicians are extremely privileged hanging out together at the UN, dinner parties, etc. regardless of what brand of state they serve. It's all the same system and same people. Every state and all empire is trash.
I don’t think a grassroots revolution will be taking place anytime soon, but this is aimed at the young people of Russia who are against the war. The old people there love Putin but I suspect they also aren’t watching YouTube.
The majority of the young people in Russia are genocidal imperialists. Support for extermination of other countries is of course higher in the older generations, but that doesn't change the fact that a solid majority of young (e.g. 18 to 29) are genocidal imperialists.
I understand that it might be reassuring to repeat platitudes like "young people of russia are against the war", but this is clearly not true.
Even the framing is suspect. What do you mean by "the war"; the full-scale invasion? In Ukraine, the war started in 2014 with annexation of Crimea and russian invasion of Donbas.
May I know where you found the info that a solid majority of young Russians (well, I think you only talk about those that did not already leave) supports the war?
Not a Russian political expert, but the fact Putin keeps calling it "denazification" and a "special military operation" leads me to believe there's a lot of people who don't support a full blown war.
I have a slightly different take: I think it’s a positive thing because the sooner we destroy YouTube, the sooner YouTube will be destroyed.
Feels like your priorities might be out of order.
My priorities are thus:
They know what they did.
Same difference. They won't do anything about it anyway.
Yeah... I suspect it has something to do with controlling info on Ukraine pushing back perhaps.
damn. how would russians watch unwanted ads now?
AFAIK they didn't have to watch ads since the sanctions took effect, because Google wasn't allowed to monetize them.
Wow. Can't wait for this empire to sanction itself.
Prime, Netflix, Hulu, any news website, pornhub, etc...
Russian here. Yes, this is indeed true. They've been throttling the bandwidth for a good while before, even yt music was slow. GoodbyeDPI lets you bypass the blocks for now. Idk what to expect next tbh
Putin's fight against reality continues. Who will be the victor?
Putin is reality.
Is this the Russian Government censoring them, or is YouTube just pulling out because the sanctions mean they can't run ads to Russian IPs?
the biggest ISP in Russia, rostelecom, started throttling youtube by 80% last month and is planning a full blocking. It's a curious choice though... even the hardest most Z people are not happy about it.
It is a double-edged sword, because it would leave them blind to certain news without propaganda. Which could have direct and indirect consequences.
there is a browser extension that loads websites without middleman interference, a lot of people are using that. apparently it even unblocks twitter and some other sites.
The government claims it's Google's hardware getting outdated. Google says that's bs.
I think that it's convenient how they're telling that to us right before throttling YouTube only with certain providers (and seems to be with only certain regions as well).
this is terrible news for right wing reactionary youtube channels.
Wasn't Russia throttling YouTube bandwidth before hand to prepare for this? Along with banning cell phones for their soldiers, I guess they're going for complete media blackout and control.
Edit: I guess they announced 70% slowdown a couple weeks ago and just went straight to full shutdown.
Banning cell phones for soldiers on the front line has become common since the phone transmissions are used as bombing targets.
However, the blackout of YouTube for the civilian populace is mainly for control purposes, especially as Ukraine is fairly active on YouTube.
That's what you get. Ukraine doesn't have access to YouTube either thanks to the rolling blackouts. So... I guess cry more? Or if you're Russian and reading this, and you want change for your country: realize you are many, they are few, and the few they have aren't currently as strong as they were before your country illegally invaded Ukraine. It won't be easy but maybe you and your brethren can secure a safer future for your children, those children, and all the children you will never meet, by rising up against your oppressors
Thought it has already banned? Thought they had the same view as Chinese government to limited information so they can better brainwash people in Russia with propaganda.
And I really liked the Russian Youtubers... Nonetheless, it's a different kind of censorship and it might just lead to more propaganda...
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is straight up State department propaganda.
lemmy.ml is straight up lemmygrad / hexbear Tankie propaganda.
While this is somewhat true (state funded, but with some level of independence), your statement doesn't jive with reality.
I follow RFE/RL in both English and several other languages. Their reporting is far better than many multi-billion dollar private news companies in the West.
And it's not a minor difference either, the western news companies are not even close.
I'm sure everything Russia China and NK do WRONG is just *propaganda, too.
Isn't that right .ml user?
Good.
It's just so strange to read how Americans blame Putin for everything almost the rest of the world (demographically speaking) blames their government for.
Obvious Russian troll is obvious.
Come on you can do better than this. You'r not even being entertainingly bad.
You need to improve or else you will fall out of a window.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
