Russian users say YouTube inaccessible amid complaints of massive outage

Thousands of Russian users complained about a massive outage of the YouTube hosting service on Aug. 8, saying they could not access the website from Internet browsers or phones, according to local media.

This is only the latest in the series of reported YouTube outages across the country amid fears that the authorities may block the website entirely.

The sboy.rf monitoring service has recorded around 11,500 complaints at the time of the publication, with 20% of them recorded in Moscow and 8% in Saint Petersburg, the country's two largest cities.

Some commentators on the DTF platform reported that videos also do not load on YouTube mobile apps and Android.

The state-owned news agency RIA Novosti wrote that when trying to access YouTube, the browser displays a notification about a lack of connection.

It remains unclear whether the outage was a direct result of an intervention by Russian authorities.

The independent outlet Meduza wrote earlier this week that the Russian government informed the country's telecom operators that YouTube will be slowed down to 128 kilobytes a second.

For now, authorities have decided "not to turn off (YouTube) completely, but to slow it down significantly," Meduza's source said at the time.

The Russian pro-state outlet Gazeta.ru reported in July that the Russian government plans to block YouTube entirely in September, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the supposed plans.

With 93 million Russian users, YouTube has been dubbed the country's "last bastion of free expression and information" amid a sweeping government crackdown on the information space.

Russia reportedly begins slowing YouTube speeds amid censorship spat with Google

Widespread YouTube outages have already been reported across Russia starting earlier in August.

The Kyiv IndependentNate Ostiller