DISINFO: RT DE was removed from YouTube with the explicit and covert collaboration of the German authorities
SUMMARY
The accounts of two RT Group media operators - 'RT DE' and 'the Missing Part' - have been deleted without the right to recover. [...] There is no doubt that such unauthorised actions against the media project were done with the explicit and covert collaboration of the German authorities and local media, which unhesitatingly and almost openly subjected correspondents of Russian channels to years of harassment.
RESPONSE
The claim frames YouTube's actions as motivated by censorship and anti-Russian sentiment, without ever mentioning the official reason why the two channels were disabled.
YouTube had issued a warning to RT, which is funded by the Russian state, for disseminating falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic. It received a warning and was temporarily blocked for 7 days from uploading new content to the video-sharing platform. This decision was taken in accordance with YouTube's policy of tackling "COVID-19 misinformation," as laid out here.
RT DE then tried to circumvent the ban by uploading new videos to its second channel, "Der fehlende Part" ("The Missing Part"). YouTube then responded by deleting both German-language RT channels, as it is a violation of YouTube terms of services.
The German government's spokesperson said that Germany 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.
See here for further debunking by The Insider (in Russian). See also our analysis "Three things you should know about RT and Sputnik".