Russia’s federal censor orders YouTube to block ‘Navalny Live’

Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, has ordered YouTube to block Alexey Navalny’s popular channel “Navalny Live.” This was reported by the channel’s producer, Lyubov Sobol — in a YouTube video.

According to Sobol, on the evening of Monday, July 26, the “Navalny Live” channel received an email from YouTube notifying them that Roskomnadzor had added the channel’s web address to a list of banned content. A similar notice from YouTube was also sent to Sobol’s personal channel. 

Sobol maintained that Roskomnadzor’s order is illegal, because the court ruling designating Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK) as an “extremist organization” hasn’t yet entered into force, and because only specific content can be blocked, not an entire YouTube channel or other resource.

Navalny’s team plans to dispute Roskomnadzor’s attempts to block their channel with YouTube’s administration, as well as in court, Sobol said.

The YouTube channel “Navalny Live” has 2.43 million subscribers. Lyubov Sobol’s personal channel has 61,000 subscribers.

On July 26, Roskomnadzor blocked Alexey Navalny’s website and more than 40 other sites linked to the FBK. The censorship agency alleged that these websites “are used for the promotion and continuation of prohibited extremist activities.”

On July 27, Navalny’s associates Leonid Volkov, Vladimir Milov, and Georgy Alburov reported that Roskomnadzor had ordered YouTube to block their channels on the grounds that they contained incitements to mass riots, extremist activities, and participation in unauthorized public gatherings.

 On July 28, Lyubov Sobol reported that Roskomnadzor had also ordered a block of her Twitter account.