YouTube viewership in Russia decreased by 11% after slowdown

The research company compared the number of Russians who used YouTube daily in August and November 2024. “The number of YouTube users has decreased by 11% since August, from 52 million to 46 million people,” analysts from Mediascope.

YouTube began to slow down in Russia at the end of July. Roskomnadzor explained the deterioration of the American video hosting service by the fact that Google “has stopped supporting the infrastructure of its cache servers in our communication networks.” The company said it was aware of the problems with YouTube in Russia, but stressed that “this is not the result of any technical issue or action on our part.”

On November 14, Mosfilm head Karen Shakhnazarov said she had met with Vladimir Putin, who promised to “cope” with YouTube’s slowdown. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed that Putin promised to “look into this issue,” but noted that slowing down YouTube “is not on the list of priority issues.”

In late November, YouTube sent notices to users in Russia asking them to remove videos containing information about VPNs. The company reported that Roskomnadzor included these videos in the register of prohibited information, warning that in case of inaction the platform will block the content itself. RKN confirmed that they demanded that YouTube remove information that “popularizes the use of VPN services and other programs to prevent blocking access to content that is illegal in Russia.”