A Russian-language YouTuber based in the US showed that Google is threatening to block one of his videos after Russian censors flagged it as prohibited content. The man is in America, not Russia, meaning Russian law should not apply to him.
On Tuesday, blogger Felix Glyukman took to Facebook to reveal that Google was threatening to remove the video at the request of the Russian government.
The video is titled, “How Did I Realize That I’m Gay?” According to court records from last November, a federal judge in Russia added the video to Russia’s Internet blacklist after the internet censor Roskomnadzor filed a complaint that it was prohibited content.
The internet censor sent Google a notice to remove the video because it violated “the Russian Law #149-FZ on information technology and information protection.” The law bans, among other things, what it calls “gay propaganda.”
According to Glyukman’s Facebook post, Google said, “If you do not remove the content, Google may be required to block it.”
Glyukman, who has not been in Russia since 2017, said: “The taxes on the income I earned from my channel I paid in the United States, and I recorded the video itself while in Miami.” He concluded by asking, “So why should I care at all about Russia’s moronic legislation?”
