Since April 2021, the Russian Internet has been flooded with news about YouTube being shut down in Russia.
The country is now firmly announcing the blocking of the portal and then backing down, explaining that if YouTube is banned, Russian media will not be able to publish “truthful” news about the military situation in Ukraine.
The latest news on this topic was a statement by Igor Ashmanov, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights and president of the research and technology company Cribrum, who said that YouTube video hosting site may be blocked in Russia by the fall.
Whether or not this is true remains to be seen. Today, however, we offer a brief recollection of the history of the emergence and development of an online platform that has become synonymous with freedom of speech and self-expression even in Russia.
The creators of the platform are former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Javed Karim.
The Youtube story began in January 2005 when Chad and Steve went to a party and Javed couldn’t join in.
The friends decided to record a video and send it to a friend. However, the file size was too big and it didn’t work out.
So Chad Hurley had the idea of creating his own website, with which he could easily share some video with his friends.
Chad became the designer of the YouTube platform, creating the logo and interface. And Javed and Steve worked on the program itself.
Speaking of which, the platform’s logo hasn’t changed too much since 2005, if you look at the history of YouTube Logo redesigns.
The developers of the site wanted to create a social network similar to Facebook. But users had their own vision, and began to post videos from life, travel, or short meaningless videos.
As for YouTube in Russia, in the 15 years since the portal officially appeared in the country, an entire community of video bloggers has formed around it, for whom publishing videos has become both a profession and the main source of income.
Already in 2018, the platform took fourth place in the rating of the popularity of online resources among Russian users.
Today, the platform covers more than 80% of the Russian population between the ages of 18 and 44, and the number is constantly growing.
YouTube’s red-and-white logo, whose meaning and history are extremely succinct, has become a sign to millions of Russians, even from the farthest corners of the country.
According to surveys from 2018-20223, Russian users treated the platform as a place to meet like-minded people.
According to 84 percent of Russian users, YouTube unlocks talent and helps people express themselves.
In addition, YouTube allows you to find people with similar interests. The survey showed that 58% of respondents were able to meet like-minded people on the video hosting site, and 65% found opinion leaders whom they admire and take their example from.
In the last couple of years, however, YouTube has become the mouthpiece of the Russian opposition, one of the few options for expressing opinions different from those of the government and pointing out its shortcomings.
That is why the brainchild of three American students is now on the list of the Russian political regime’s greatest enemies.
