Get the latest tech news

Civil society to YouTube: stop helping Russia suppress free speech

Access Now and over 20 Russian and international civil society organizations urge YouTube to not suppress free speech in Russia.

YouTube is one of the most influential platforms for independent information in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and has a moral duty to resist unjust laws that make it complicit in human rights violations. In September 2021, Russian authorities pressed Apple and Google to remove then opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s Smart Voting project app from their stores and platforms. In the open letter, the civil society asks YouTube and Google to protect the freedom of speech and the dissemination of information and not become a tool of political censorship for the Russian authorities.

Get the Android app