Russia plans to create a blacklist of YouTube vloggers who refuse to join a Kremlin-backed alternative to the U.S. video platform as it seeks to tighten its grip on information.
Aleksandr Malkevich, a member of Russia’s Civic Chamber, told a conference on February 10 dedicated to the topic of blogging that the list would target those individuals focusing on a Russian audience.
He said the list should be used as the basis for taking “measures” against such individuals, but did not disclose what such measures could include.
Malkevich said the blacklist would be the first of many steps taken to force Russian vloggers onto a Kremlin-controlled platform.
Russia has already launched an alternative to YouTube called Rutube and many say the Kremlin could eventually ban the U.S.-based platform once it gets enough of its own citizens onto the domestic alternative.
YouTube and other U.S. social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have been a thorn in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side.
Since coming to power nearly a quarter century ago, the 71-year-old Putin has increasingly sought to control what Russians read, see, and hear.
The nation’s television stations, news portals, and major newspapers are owned either by the state or Kremlin-friendly tycoons who censor material unfavorable to Putin.
However, the Russian leader has no control over material on Western platforms and they have become lifelines for the voice of the battered Russian opposition.
YouTube has arguably been the most powerful of the Western platforms in combating Kremlin propaganda.
Jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny used the platform to post his team’s investigations into corruption at the highest levels of government, including into Putin and his former prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev.
The investigative videos on Navalny's have racked up hundreds of millions of views over the years.