Russia threatens to kick out American journalist if YouTube takes down another press briefing

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Russia threatens to kick out American journalist if YouTube takes down another press briefing

Moscow has pledged to kick out an American journalist if YouTube takes down another Foreign Ministry press briefing.

Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that if one of its press briefing videos is taken down again by YouTube, an American journalist or media outlet working in Russia will go home. Maria Zakharova, the ministry spokesman, issued a warning at a roundtable discussion in the information policy commission of the parliament's upper house. She said that the Google-owned video hosting service had already blocked a couple of her media briefings.

What we did just came out and said: You block the briefing again, one journalist or one American media outlet will go home. That s it One more blocked briefing and we will name a specific person or a specific media outlet that will go home, Zakharova said.

According to Zakharova, a Polish background of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, she added: Given that this is all done by a Polish citizen with Polish citizenship, and given the position of Poland, maybe we will not limit ourselves to American media. Because of the fact that they are making a lot of money, the amount of content produced by our creative people is not easy to find elsewhere. Wojcicki provided a different reason for the presence of the company in Russia : to deliver independent news into Russia. In early April, Zakharova said that her March 17 briefing had been blocked by YouTube, calling the move another act of digital censorship against a verified account of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor demanded that Google remove the restrictions and explain the reasons behind its decision.

YouTube said its guidelines prohibits content that denies, downplays, or detracts from well-documented episodes of violence, and therefore removes Ukraine-related content that violates this policy. At the end of April, Zakharova revealed that YouTube had taken down another briefing.

If the Foreign Ministry's channel on YouTube is turned off, someone from CNN will go home. And the BBC, too, said Zakharova on Telegram.

More than 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels were taken down last week due to the war in Ukraine for violating the content guidelines, according to YouTube.

Roskomnadzor has found dozens of cases of discrimination against the Russian government, the country's media outlets, public and sports organizations, as well as individuals, by the video hosting platform.

In response to Russia's military offensive in Ukraine, the West introduced sweeping sanctions on Moscow, including bans and restrictions on certain media outlets. RT and Sputnik, along with their accounts on some social media platforms, are not accessible in the EU. RT and Sputnik's YouTube accounts were blocked in the US as well.

Russia blocked the websites of several Western state-owned outlets, such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. Earlier this month, Moscow revoked the visas and credentials of the CBC, citing Canada's decision to ban English and French broadcasts.