YouTube removed the page for Russian independent radio station Echo of Moscow from its platform following censorship of the newspaper within Russia. The decision came after Echo of Moscow’s radio broadcast was taken off air and its website was blocked by the internet regulator. The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov, posted an urgent appeal to Google and YouTube on social media asking them to reverse the decision, saying they had made a “terrible mistake”. Muratov said that YouTube had said the reason was that one of the Echo of Moscow’s shareholders was Gazprom, the Russian state-owned multinational energy corporation which was placed under sanctions by western governments.
Russia-Ukraine WarCensorship and regulationPublication ban, take-down order or forced deletion, fine, administrative action