"Zvezda", "Soloviev LIVE", "Spas" learn to bypass the YouTube ban – IMI survey

Russian channels "Zvezda", "Soloviev LIVE" and "Spas" have figured out how to bypass the YouTube ban and continue to upload abusive content to the platform. These channels were blocked after the Russian Federation's large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This is evidenced by IMI's survey on Russia's use of YouTube as a platform for propaganda.

For instance, on April 26, 2023, the Russian pro-government channel Spas created its own double, named SPAS-STREAM. They continue to manipulate religious sentiments in order to incite hatred towards Ukrainians.

The TV channel Tsargrad, owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev and banned by the video hosting's team back in July 2020, also continues to work in the interests of the Kremlin. However, they made an error while doing this. If you go directly to the YouTube channel's main page, it will indeed be displayed as "unavailable". However, if you type "Tsargrad TV" in the YouTube search bar, you will see an entire series of videos that can be viewed even without a VPN.

"Soloviev LIVE" also managed to bypass the ban. This YouTube channel has no uploaded videos, but on February 22, 2023, it hosted a 24-hour livestream.

And, finally, the Russian Defense Ministry's channel "Zvezda" continues to spread propaganda, constantly creating clones on YouTube and trying to preserve their content in case of another ban.

Read more about the Russian and pro-Russian YouTube channels that target the foreign audience and still upload their propaganda content to the platform here.