Russia tells Google to stop spreading threats against Russians on YouTube

FILE PHOTO: Youtube logo is placed on a Russian flag in this illustration picture taken February 26, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) -Russia on Friday demanded that Alphabet Inc's Google stop spreading what it called threats against Russian citizens on its YouTube video-sharing platform, a move that could presage an outright block of the service on Russian territory.

The regulator, Roskomnadzor, said adverts on the platform were calling for the communications systems of Russia and Belarus' railway networks to be suspended and that their dissemination was evidence of the U.S. company's anti-Russian position. It did not say which accounts were publishing the adverts.