YouTube Blocks, Removes Channels Of Russia's RT In Germany

The video platform YouTube has blocked and removed Russian state media outlet RT's German channels. A YouTube spokesperson confirmed the termination of two channels on Tuesday evening in response to a query from Anna Ringle and Christian Thiele of Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Photo Insert: YouTube claims that it had given RT DE ample warning but the latter is crying foul.

RT DE, the Russian news channel's German-language site, also reported on its own website that the channels had been blocked. The editor-in-chief of Moscow-based RT, Margarita Simonyan, sharply criticized YouTube's move on Twitter and called the situation a "media war."

YouTube said it recently brought to RT DE's attention that the state media outlet had violated the platform's coronavirus misinformation policy. RT DE was then temporarily barred from uploading videos to its YouTube channel.

According to YouTube, RT DE then used a second channel. YouTube called this an attempt to circumvent the ban and cited it as the reason the Russian outlet was blocked early on Tuesday evening.

RT considers itself "unjustly accused" and is considering legal action against the "arbitrary termination," a spokesman from RT DE told dpa. RT DE has some 600,000 subscribers on YouTube, the spokesman said.

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