- [Narrator] This social media platform
is a Russian state-owned alternative to YouTube.
The Kremlin has been promoting
the homegrown network, RuTube,
as part of a battle for Russian users and their minds.
That's because in the country
social media platforms have increasingly become
one of the main sources of information
challenging state television.
- YouTube is the most important platform
for millions of people.
- [Narrator] So, we examine the Russian video platform
at the center of the Kremlin's push to attract users
away from foreign networks,
limiting their access to independent news
during the war in Ukraine.
Owned by a Russian state company,
RuTube is a video platform almost as old as YouTube
and visually very similar to it
and the Kremlin has been outspoken about its potential.
(speaker speaking in Russian)
Since the war in Ukraine started,
YouTube has been one of the last sources
of alternative news in Russia.
That's because Instagram and Facebook
are blocked in the country.
That happened after the parent company Meta
barred access to some state channels in Europe,
following requests from the European Union
and British authorities.
YouTube remains available in Russia
but there are concerns about its future there,
especially after the Kremlin and RuTube
have been on a mission to draw people away
from the American network.
(speaker speaking in Russian)
The company has partnered with some popular vloggers
and offered content creators 100% of the revenue
from ad views during the first 40 days after joining.
The incentive came after YouTube paused monetization
in Russia as a response to its aggression in Ukraine.
This means vloggers can no longer make money
from ad views from users in Russia.
A month later, some popular Russian celebrities and vloggers
who were on YouTube also started using RuTube.
The platform's usership has also grown
as the Kremlin encouraged government departments,
universities and state-backed media outlets
to migrate their content from YouTube to RuTube.
- [Male Voice] Top Blog.
- [Narrator] And Moscow is investing
in a new generation of vloggers
with the program teaching Russians how to become successful
on domestic platforms like RuTube.
But the government support is one reason
some users don't feel like switching.
- There is no trust to anything made by the government
especially in order to replace something
already good and foreign.
(speaking in Russian)
- [Narrator] Leionid Pashkowski is a Russian speaking
travel blogger and journalist
with more than 1 million followers on YouTube.
He says he's skeptical about RuTube
replacing YouTube for Russian viewers.
- I just tried to watch something
or find something in there
and there was no views counters under the videos.
- [Narrator] And data from analytics firm, Similarweb
shows that there are fewer users on RuTube than on YouTube.
In May, RuTube had some 38 million visits,
a number dwarfed by the nearly 2 billion visits to YouTube
only from Russia.
Some users can be put off by RuTube
because of censorship concerns
which begin to emerge when uploading a video.
According to RuTube's content curation info page,
getting a video on the platform can take up to 24 hours
as its moderation team watches every video
before other users can access it.
And RuTube says, "It adheres to the observance of the law
and generally accepted norms of morality."
It couldn't be determined if all videos
go through human creation or how the platform decides
what videos to check manually or automatically.
- Any type of independent creators and political activists
cannot rely on RuTube.
- [Narrator] Gregory Asmolov studies the Russian internet
at King's College London.
He says, even if content that's not aligned
with the Kremlin's rhetoric made it onto YouTube,
its algorithms wouldn't promote it.
- And that's why YouTube is used by those
who are willing to find some kind of space
to express their voice.
- [Narrator] YouTube also curates content.
According to the company's community guidelines,
its policies prohibit hate speech, misinformation
and harmful or dangerous content.
YouTube also says it uses human moderators
and an upload process that automatically screens
for potential issues before posting.
But the uploading time is faster
and the company says it can take anywhere from a few minutes
to several hours based on the file size and bandwidth.
YouTube didn't comment on its content moderation criteria
and the challenge from RuTube in Russia.
- YouTube definitely is still serving in Russia.
- [Narrator] The American tech giant has said
it's important to let people in Russia have access
to independent news.
- YouTube will be blocked.
People in Russia will be closed in a bubble
of just Russian information and just propaganda.
- [Narrator] RuTube and its parent company Gazprom-Media
didn't respond to a request for comment about censorship
and view count concerns.
The Kremlin said its promotion of RuTube
started long before the conflict in Ukraine
as it's always seen the potential of the platform.
As RuTube tries to gain momentum and take on YouTube,
internet media experts say it'll require
a really important quality
that's one of the most difficult to replicate.
- That lacks the global spirit of user generated content
that you can see on YouTube.
Therefore, we can see that YouTube continues
to be extremely popular in Russia
and RuTube is not able to replace YouTube
as a local alternative.