Roskomnadzor "drew the attention of the Russian media to the need to maintain information channels on domestic video hosting sites" and asked the country's leading Internet companies "to help our media in their creation and popularization."

This is stated in the press service of the regulator.

The department also demanded that the American company Google remove restrictions on the YouTube channels of Anna News.

Roskomnadzor clarified that the administration of the American video hosting has introduced a complete ban on the creation of channels by the specified agency.

“A targeted policy of censorship in relation to the Russian media is unacceptable and violates the key principles of free dissemination of information and unhindered access to it.

We demand that all restrictions on access to Anna News's YouTube channels be lifted as soon as possible, ”the press service said.

It is worth noting that the day before, Roskomnadzor also demanded that Google remove from the search results the advertisements for sites with narcotic content that had appeared.

To prevent links to prohibited information from appearing in the search engine, the agency demanded that the company "check the correctness of the mechanisms for pre-moderation of contextual advertising for Russian users."

Roskomnadzor stressed that access to Internet resources, advertising of which is revealed in Google search results, is limited.

In response, the company said that it considers it unacceptable to advertise goods and services that may harm health, noting that they react to violations as soon as they become known. 

“Unfortunately, sometimes malicious advertisers manage to bypass our filters,” TASS quotes the answer from the Google press service.

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Censorship of foreign Internet platforms against Russian media

Recall that Moscow has repeatedly drawn attention to cases of prejudice of American Internet platforms towards the work of Russian media.

In October, Roskomnadzor reported that YouTube, Instagram and Facebook continue to ignore the demand to end the censorship of Russian media, which "has become systemic." 

The ministry stressed that these platforms, as well as the social network Twitter, restrict access to materials from about 20 Russian media outlets, including RT, RIA Novosti, Sputnik and Rossiya 1.

For example, on April 11, YouTube removed from the official RT in Russian channel an interview with the head physician of the hospital in Kommunarka, Denis Protsenko, Anton Krasovsky, considering it “unacceptable and inconsistent with the rules”.

It was not reported which rules the material violated.

Later, the company called this decision erroneous and restored the video.

In July, YouTube also blocked an episode of the RT project on coronavirus due to "false information."

We are talking about the release of the "Epidemic" by Anton Krasovsky, which talked about how the food was bought up at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The video hosting said that the video allegedly contained information about the coronavirus, which contradicted official WHO sources.

In addition, in August, Twitter announced the introduction of tags for accounts belonging to representatives of diplomatic departments of different countries, as well as for accounts of state-related media outlets and their senior officials.

After that, the markings appeared on RT's Twitter accounts in Russian, English, German, French, Arabic and Spanish, on the RIA Novosti page, on the Russia Today press center, on the personal page of RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and on the accounts of several others Russian media.

The social network did not begin to tag Western media sources receiving funding through the government in this way.

Moreover, at the end of September, Twitter removed the RIA Novosti account from the search results, and before that, similarly hid the profiles of RT and Sputnik.

Bill on blocking websites for censoring Russian media

On November 19, a group of State Duma deputies and Senator Alexei Pushkov submitted to the lower house a bill on measures against Internet platforms for censoring Russian media or citizens. 

The authors of the document, in particular, propose to introduce into the legislation the status of "owner of an information resource involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation."

In the event of violations, the Prosecutor General, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, can assign such a status to the owner of a site that, among other things, allows discrimination against materials from Russian media.

This information will be sent to Roskomnadzor, which will be able to introduce "full or partial restriction of access" in relation to portals whose owners are found to be violators. 

The authors of the initiative emphasized that the bill was developed to protect the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation to freely search, access and disseminate information. 

“Since April 2020, the authorized bodies of the Russian Federation have been recording complaints from media editors about the facts of censoring their accounts by foreign Internet sites Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Such media outlets as Russia Today, RIA Novosti, “Crimea 24” were censored, - explains in the explanatory note to the bill.

On November 26, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, in her video message to the participants of the conference "Digital Technologies and Scientific Diplomacy", also drew attention to the political engagement of the administrations of social networks and the strengthening of elements of censorship. 

“In fact, we have to operate on an unfriendly territory in the face of increased elements of censorship and unfair competition,” she said.