The Rosteleset Association, which unites more than 200 regional telecom operators, ended up at the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) regarding the uneven slowdown of YouTube.
The organization demands that proceedings be brought in violation of the Law on Protection of Competition due to the creation of “discriminatory conditions for telecom operators by unevenly slowing down the work of YouTube video platforms, the Google search engine and its services”; persons found guilty of violating antitrust laws, as well as measures to limit violations. This “provoked a sharp increase in the number of user complaints to providers.”
Taking into account the circumstances, telecom operators assume that the slowdown of YouTube is connected with external influence by the method of “slowing down”, which can be carried out only through TSPU (technical means of counteracting threats; special equipment that the state must keep on the networks of all telecom operators in the country to counter notifications, as well as blocking blocked resources – RBC), which are monitored under the jurisdiction of the Main Radio Frequency Center.
Since such measures of influence on Internet resources as “slowing down work” are not provided for in the regulatory legal acts by the requirements, and the resource itself, as well as the domain name youtube.com, as of the beginning of August is not included in the list of prohibited or restricted access, authorized. The authorities and courts have not made a decision to restrict access to the platform, the State Radio Frequency Center and Roskomnadzor do not have the right to independently initiate an investigation of actions to restrict access to information.
— Rosteleseti
According to the organization, such a decision complies with the rules of the “free market”. The presence or limitation of YouTube, as well as the quality of access to it, is for operators “either a competitive advantage or a competitive restriction”. Subscribers are increasingly switching to the services of mobile operators “only because of the quality of YouTube’s Internet resources”. [РБК]
Source: Iphones RU
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
