A Russian opposition leader wants to fight Vladimir Putin with ads on YouTube

Web Desk

29th Apr, 2022. 07:34 am
Share

Here’s an odd request from Russia’s opposition leader: Fight Vladimir Putin not with weapons, but with ads on YouTube.

After years writing about the spread of misinformation in the US, which is often via platforms like YouTube and at times as a result of Russian election interference, it was jarring to hear that YouTube is the Russian opposition’s lifeline to the truth.

I spoke to Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations forRussian oppositionleader Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, about their efforts to get truthful information back into Russia.

Unlike someother platforms, YouTubehas not yet been blocked by the Russian government, and it is also available to Russians who access the internet with virtual private network, or VPN, connections.

A channel Pevchikh and her colleagues set up to cover the war in Ukraine has seen rapid growth from Russians who want to know more, she said.

When I pointed out that dichotomy — that in the US, YouTube is just as often accused ofspreading false information — she said it’s one of the few ways her organization and others can get around the state-run propaganda machine that dominates more traditional media.

“YouTube predominantly is the source of the actually not fake news or the actual real news,” Pevchikh said.

That does not mean Pevchikh and Navalny, who is in a Russian penal colony, are happy with YouTube and its parent company, Google.

Navalny wrote in a recent 31-tweet thread posted on Twitter that it is Google’s corporate decision to stop selling ads in Russia that is hurting the opposition movement’s ability to reach additional eyeballs.

Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Event and Latest News Updates on The BOL News

Download The BOL News App to get the Daily News Update & Live News.