Most likely, the disruptions in YouTube’s work are related to the blocking in Russia, which has been talked about for more than a year. Techno 24And although this is officially called “slowing down the service”, in practice, many Russians experience difficulties in the work of both YouTube and some other services.

According to Downdetector, a service that aggregates crash reports, YouTube has received more than 500 complaints about crashes.

The majority of users (48%) reported issues with the platform’s website alone, while 23% complained about a general failure of YouTube functionality.

Residents of the Moscow region were the most affected, followed by a significant number of complaints from St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region, the Krasnodar region and the Rostov region.

YouTube blocked in Russia

In mid-July, Rostelecom warned of a possible “YouTube slowdown.” In the last week of July, local Russian operators also reported possible problems with their video service.

In Russia, they are trying to explain the situation by the fact that Google’s equipment is old, subject to natural wear and tear, and the company cannot cope with caching. As a result, YouTube’s speed in Russia may drop from 40% to 70% in the coming days.

Despite these issues, YouTube remains hugely popular in Russia. Between July 22 and 28, the number of Russians aged four and over reached 82.5 million, up from 82.1 million the previous week and 80.6 million during the same period last year.

Despite the fact that the service is blocked in Russia, Russian users continue to trust YouTube and are in no hurry to switch to Russian proxies in the form of VK Video and other local analogues.