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Until last summer, Tsargrad TV, which has been calling itself the Russian Orthodox Church’s response to Fox News, has been a hidden corner of YouTube.
The Russian-language online news channel is known for its priestly host and conspiracy about the global financial system’s conspiracy against Moscow. The suspect was acquired by Google’s streaming service in July last year for claiming that the United States violated sanctions.
Now, the Czar is ready to fight back after a landmark court ruling, because Moscow may increase its efforts to force Western technology companies to comply with its laws, which may put Google’s entire Russian business at risk.
Last month, a Moscow court ordered Google to restore Tsargrad’s YouTube channel worldwide, on the grounds that the ban unfairly discriminated against its owner Konstantin Malofeev.
Since 2014, Malofeev has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for his relationship with Russia-backed Ukrainian separatists. But he told the British “Financial Times” that in the years before the ban took effect, YouTube had been paying Tsargrad about $10,000 in advertising revenue per month.
Google appealed the ruling on May 19. If the ruling fails, it will face a daily rolling fine imposed by the court, which may increase to 9.4 billion rupees ($128 million) by the end of the year, close to a market of 153 million dollars. Capital letters of the parent company Alphabet.
YouTube said on Friday: “Google is committed to complying with applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws. If we discover that an account violates these laws, we will take appropriate action.”
“I have no plan to become a Russian citizen in Russia, because in the United States, idiots look at idiots. That’s why I defend my rights under Russian law,” Malofeev told the Financial Times in an interview last week.
“If American Internet platforms cannot comply with Russian laws, then maybe they have nothing to do in Russia. This is their decision.” He added that the tsar’s office is surrounded by souvenirs of the Russian Empire.
In an era when foreign Internet giants control the personal data of large numbers of Russians, Moscow increasingly believes that control of its so-called “digital sovereignty” is essential. The Kremlin fears that the personal data of Russians may be used to expose its intelligence services or organize protests.
President Vladimir Putin warned this year that forcing foreign companies to comply with Russian law is crucial, so society will not “collapse from within.”
Google and YouTube are the biggest goals. Putin’s most famous opponent, the imprisoned opposition activist Alexei Navalny, has more subscribers on YouTube than all state-owned television stations in Russia, and mobilized them for large-scale demonstrations.
Tsargrad studio. The channel has become an important tool on the conservative fringe of Russia © Tsargrad TV/YouTube
Russia is deploying various tools to deal with technology groups. In the spring, the censors deployed new technology from Russia’s “sovereign Internet”, which actually ran parallel networks on the country’s servers. Slow down Twitter For the 3168 posts that were not deleted, it said it encouraged illegal activities.
Internet censor Roscomnadzor (Roscomnadzor) said this week that after the site deletes most of the controversial posts, it will not ban Twitter, but it vowed to take similar measures against YouTube and Facebook if they don’t comply. Local laws.
Russia’s antitrust watchdog is also investigating Google’s so-called “opaque, unobjective and unpredictable” blocking policy of YouTube.
The Russian state-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom restarted the local YouTube clone RuTube at the end of last year, and launched the Russian TikTok-style app YaMolodets, and plans to develop it into a reliable competitor.
Konstantin Malofeev, the owner of the tsar, told the Financial Times that “I am defending the rights granted by Russian law.” ©Gavriil Grigorov/TASS via Getty Images
Their audience is only a small part of the foreign audience. Andrei Soldatov, a non-resident senior researcher at the European Policy Analysis Center, said that another new law requires smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a series of Russian-made apps on phones sold in the country. This may drive users forward.
“They have decided to go the Chinese route and provide an analogy for all these services,” said Soldatov, the co-author of a book about Russia’s attempts to control the Internet. “Now they do have the technical ability to attack global platforms-slow down traffic and do a lot of annoying things.”
Russia has threatened to ban foreign social networks. The 2016 blockade of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn failed to panic Silicon Valley in complying with Russia’s laws on data localization and prohibited content. On the contrary, companies found to be violating Russian law are happy to pay a negligible fine.
Roscomnadzor abandoned the 2018 ban on Telegram two years later, after its Dubai-based Russian founder Pavel Durov found a way to evade the blockade.
“They are fighting for themselves. No one is helping. The entire presidential government is running telegrams on mobile phones.” Putin’s former internet adviser, German Klimenko, said.
After Putin Revised the Russian Constitution Last year, Moscow had more legal weapons available. A change confirms that Russian law has the supremacy relative to foreign courts when there is a conflict of jurisdiction.
Subsequent laws provide that businessmen subject to international sanctions can use Russian courts to resolve foreign disputes. Another popular pro-Kremlin talk show host and national television station RT have threatened to “censor” the Russian media after accusing YouTube of deleting their videos. A law enacted last Friday will allow Russia to ban Internet companies that refuse to open local offices.
The new regulations will force Internet companies to comply with Russian law-or withdraw from the market-Klimenko said, adding: “The point is not to charge fines.”
In addition, they can create a separate version of their website in Russia. He said: “If you want to become an international channel, please follow our rules. If you don’t want to do this, then you can do whatever you want, your Russian IP will be [banned]. “
Sagrad (Tsargrad) itself is a relatively small bull: before YouTube eliminated it, its online subscribers reached a peak of about 1 million. But Malofeev, a longtime advocate of greater government control of the Russian Internet, made it an important tool on the fringe of conservatives in Russia.
According to the law, smartphone manufacturers must now pre-install a series of Russian-made apps on phones sold in the country. ©Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP, Getty Images
The Kremlin hopes to inspire far-right patriotism through Malofeev’s allies, who will run for parliament in September.
Malofeev, who has close ties to the far-right figures in Europe and the United States, said he hopes that the Czar’s court victory will inspire conservatives in the West.
After the hearing, he wrote to Donald Trump, urging the former US president, who is still banned by Twitter and Facebook, to sue US technology companies for review in Russian courts and “cooperate with us to build a free speech platform in the future.”
He said: “People from California can’t make rules in Russia.” “If they don’t let me move on, then they won’t do anything damn things here.”
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