DISINFO: Berlin is ashamed to admit that it is fighting RT Deutsch with undignified methods
SUMMARY
Berlin makes excuses about RT Deutsch. It is difficult to believe in the sincerity of the statement of the representative of the German government. Youtube is a commercial organisation and by itself does not engage in political censorship. [But does so] only if very "persistently" asked by certain states, which was evident from previous examples of YouTube's struggle with Russian media and bloggers.
Berlin is ashamed to admit that it is fighting the RT Deutsch channel with such unworthy methods, which very quickly became popular among the Germans.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about discrimination against Russian media in the West.
The German government was not involved in blocking Russian state-backed broadcaster RT’s German-language channels on YouTube. “It is a decision by YouTube, based on rules created by YouTube, it is not a measure (taken by) the German government or other official organisations,” German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert stated. He said anyone claiming otherwise was fabricating a conspiracy theory.
Accusations of censorship and attacks against freedom of expression are a recurring pro-Kremlin technique to defend the illicit actions of Russia’s state-sponsored disinformation outlets after local authorities adopt measures against them. Claims of “interference” are also frequently raised to deflect any criticism of Russian authorities by international media.
In its response, YouTube wrote that they have "always had clear community guidelines setting out what is permitted on the platform." YouTube said RT DE had breached its rules. All videos uploaded to YouTube must comply with its guidelines which sets up the type of content allowed to be on the platform.
YouTube had issued a warning to RT, which is funded by the Russian state, for disseminating falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic. It was temporarily blocked for 7 days from uploading new content to the video-sharing platform.
RT then tried to circumvent the ban by uploading new videos to its second channel, "Der fehlende Part" ("The Missing Part"). YouTube then applied the Terms of Service and responded by deleting both German-language RT channels. For this reason, it can’t be considered an “act of censorship” or an “attack on the freedom of expression”. However, this banning prompted a harsh reaction from Russia, which threatened itself to ban YouTube in the country, while RT director Margarita Simonyan called on Russian authorities to ban German state broadcasters including Deutsche Welle.
On 25 August, YouTube said that they erased 1 million videos for spreading disinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines, and on 29 September 2021 company stated it will remove content that spreads misinformation about all approved vaccines.