Aleksei Didenko, a member of the Russian State Duma, has claimed that Google, including its Android operating system and Apple's iOS, will soon be blocked in Russia.
Did Not Result in a Tragedy
Didenko made this statement in an interview with RuNews24, according to Lenta, following a series of disruptions experienced by YouTube on August 1.
Didenko advised the public not to cling to services like YouTube, stating, "Soon Google will be blocked, along with Google Android. iOS will also be blocked, and this will not be our initiative."
He emphasized that government employees and officials have long been prohibited from using these platforms.
Reflecting on the impact of losing access to foreign services, Didenko mentioned that the absence of platforms like Netflix did not result in a tragedy for Russian users. His comments come amidst ongoing discussions about the viability and future of Western digital services in Russia.
Reduction in Youtube
Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communications, previously noted that YouTube has been unable to pay for services provided by Russian data centers.
He highlighted a significant reduction in YouTube's loading speed, which dropped by 40 percent recently and could decline by 70 percent by the end of the next week.
On August 1, numerous Russians reported issues accessing YouTube. Google responded by stating that these disruptions were not due to technical problems on their end.
