Russia is throttling access to Alphabet Inc’s YouTube as the Kremlin moves toward blocking one of the last US social media sites still available in the country.

YouTube download speeds on computers will be slowed by around 40% this week and 70% by the end of next week, Alexander Khinshtein, head of the technology committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said on his Telegram channel Thursday.

Russia forced out several foreign social media and Internet companies after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, characterising the effort as a campaign to uphold its digital sovereignty. YouTube has been one of the few to remain, despite the blocking of platforms including Facebook, X and Instagram, in part because there was no clear domestic alternative at the time.

“Everything that’s happening is a consequence of the anti-Russian policy of the host, that consistently deletes channels of our public figures (bloggers, journalists, artists) with positions that differ from the western point of view,” Khinshtein said.

The Russian unit of Google, which is YouTube’s parent, filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after local authorities seized its bank accounts over a series of local fines. However, the company continued to offer free services inside of Russia, including Google Search, YouTube and Gmail.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Access to YouTube on mobile devices will remain unaffected for now, according to Khinshtein. Alternative Russian services such as Rutube and VK Video can serve as a replacement, he said.

Russia in 2021 throttled X, known as Twitter at the time, for refusing to take down content. The slowdown was a prelude to a full block of the platform following the start of the Ukraine war.

YouTube has blocked some channels that are pro-Kremlin or run by the Russian state. Google has also been repeatedly fined for not deleting content that Russia says is illegal.

Roughly half of Russians use YouTube every month, according to the Mediascope monitoring service.

 - Bloomberg