Russia threatens to block YouTube, Kremlin urges ‘zero tolerance’

Russia on Wednesday threatened to block YouTube and the Kremlin called for “zero tolerance” towards the video hosting giant after it removed Russian state-backed broadcaster RT‘s German-language channels from its site.

The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc deleted Russian state-backed broadcaster RT‘s German-language channels on Tuesday, saying they had breached its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

On Wednesday YouTube said it would block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond COVID-19 to include content that alleges vaccines cause chronic health effects or contains misinformation on the substances in vaccines.

Russia said it was considering retaliating against German media and also accused YouTube of “unprecedented information aggression” after the company’s move against the RT channels.