The American giant YouTube has closed the channels of pro-Russian separatists in the war-torn eastern Ukraine, as the latter announced today, amid tensions between Russia and the West over this conflict.
The Luhansk People's Republic Information Center, the official information website of the self-proclaimed region, said on its website that its channel had been shut down "without explanation".
Indeed, the channel is inaccessible and is replaced by a message saying "this account has been closed due to non-compliance with the YouTube Community Rules".
Many other separatist channels carried the same message, such as those of the Ministry of Information and the "People's Militia" of the other autonomous region, the Donetsk People's Republic.
Russia has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating "Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia's nuclear program have been made more than once.
It is now accused in the West of preparing an invasion of Ukraine, something that Moscow denies, saying instead that it is under the threat of NATO, which in 30 years has expanded to its borders. The Kremlin believes that the de-escalation around Ukraine depends on the withdrawal of the North Atlantic Alliance from Eastern Europe, a claim that NATO has rejected.
Russia also often accuses major social media and platforms such as Facebook, Google or YouTube of violating Russian law by retaining content that it identifies as illegal, resulting in financial sanctions.
Source: RES-EAP