State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin says that the White House wants American IT firms that own social media networks to join its digital against Russia.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin posted on Telegram on Saturday that YouTube’s decision to restrict the channel of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) confirms the US’ involvement in violations of rights and freedoms.

“It is another proof of Washington’s violation of rights and freedoms,” he said.

In Volodin’s view, the United States wants American IT firms that own social media networks to join its information war against Russia.

“Washington is ignoring all the principles of democracy to make sure that all platforms, including YouTube, present only the US position. The United States seeks a monopoly on information but we can’t have that,” the speaker stressed.

After baning the channel, Roskomnadzor wrote to Google, the company that runs YouTube, requesting to remove the ban on the official YouTube channel of the Russian Parliament – the State Duma channel.

“Google has blocked Duma TV’s YouTube channel. It had more than 145,000 subscribers and our videos received more than 100 million views in total,” the chamber said in a statement on Saturday.

The Duma TV channel, which broadcasts plenary sessions and publishes exclusive comments from deputies, had previously been free from the limitations imposed by American platform companies on broadcasts of Russian official bodies and media in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

The Duma authorities have, however, indicated that they were “prepared for this situation” and announced that their broadcasts continue on Russian platforms such as RuTube, VKontakte or the Telegram messaging channel, according to the note collected by the TASS agency.

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