Russians switch to homegrown social media amid Ukraine crackdown

From RuTube to VKontakte, domestic platforms are getting a boost from Moscow's curbs on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. — Reuters

TBILISI/BERLIN: When YouTube stopped users in Russia from monetising their clips following the invasion of Ukraine, George Kavanosyan, a Moscow-based environmentalist with 60,000 followers on the platform tried to switch to its local equivalent, RuTube.

But, as the Kremlin tightened control over online information, he became increasingly frustrated by the video sharing site, which is owned by the media division of Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom.