Russian Court Bans YouTube for Extremist Content

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For hosting “extremist” content, YouTube has been banned by the Russian government. Local Internet provider Rosnet has been ordered to block YouTube together with three online libraries and website which archives deleted web pages.

The whole issue was a result of YouTube hosting Russia for Russians. This is an ultra-nationalist video which was added to the justice ministry’s federal list of banned extremist materials after a separate court decision in Samara region in November.

Other sites included in the ordered banning were Web.archives.org, Lib.rus.ec, Thelib.ru and Zhurnal.ru. The sites carried copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

The ban was condemned by a number of critics, mostly bloggers and Internet gurus, for potentially depriving them of freedom of information. Google, who owns YouTube, calls the decision a violation to Russian’s constitutional rights as well.

A sane proposition was suggested by a Rosnet engineer. The suggestion calls for prosecutors to try and contact the portals concerned and request that they take down the offensive material/s.

This would have been a reasonable compromise if only the Russian government would care to consider it.

With the ban, Russia now joins the ranks of China, Pakistan, Turkey and Iran who have banned YouTube in their respective regions.