In recent days, much of Google‘s activity has focused on two aspects: on one hand, its fight against the US justice system to prove that it is not benefiting from its monopoly position; on the other hand, its tireless fight against malware and viruses attacking computers, smartphones, and TVs. And, as several media outlets indicate, the American company has once again faced an old technological rival from its country: Russia.
As reported by the Reuters portal in a recent publication, Google has restricted the creation of new accounts for Russian users. Apparently, Google has been under pressure in Russia for several years, especially for not removing content that the Eurasian country considers illegal and for blocking YouTube channels of Russian media and public figures since the conflict with Ukraine. This is why the country’s Digital Ministry confirmed the restriction and also mentioned a significant reduction in the number of SMS messages Google sends to Russian users.
Russia and Google face a new conflict
It is not clear if the SMS confirmations for two-factor authentication are still working, which has increased concerns among Russian users. Additionally, the country’s Digital Ministry recommends backing up their data and switching to alternative methods of two-factor authentication or national platforms. In August, Google disabled AdSense accounts in Russia and shortly before that removed ads for users in the country.
In recent months, over 1,000 YouTube channels of Russian origin have been blocked by Google, as well as over 5.5 million videos. Moreover, there have also been slower speeds on YouTube in the country, a situation that lawmakers attribute to the lack of equipment updates by Google. So far, none of the companies involved have made statements about it, but in the past, Google itself stated that the slowness experienced by users is not related to the lack of updates to their equipment.
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