Russia accuses YouTube of censoring content at Washington's behest

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's foreign ministry accused YouTube on Friday of censoring content and preventing access to information at the behest of the United States, warning that it saw ample grounds to take action against the video hosting site.

Russia has in recent years heavily criticised Alphabet's Google, which owns YouTube, for taking down channels of Russian media and public figures, failing to remove content that Moscow considers illegal or undesirable and for not appropriately storing its data in Russia.

"We see a lot of significant grounds to take measures against the YouTube video hosting site," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"Numerous systematic violations of Russian law and a demonstrative disregard for the domestic audience and its interests leave our state's regulatory bodies the right to use the appropriate legal tools.

"Lawlessness and political censorship remain the norm for the Washington-controlled YouTube administration," she said, accusing it of systematically removing Russian content in an effort to deprive the world of Russian sources of information.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zakharova's statement.

Russia's criticisms of Google have intensified in the past two weeks, with senior lawmakers blaming it for slower download speeds on YouTube and some figures, including Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, calling for the platform to be blocked.

A YouTube spokesperson has previously said the company was aware of reports of some people not being able to access YouTube in Russia.

"That is not as a result of any technical issues on our side or action taken by us," the spokesperson said.

Zakharova also said on Friday that, in addition to the dozens of YouTube channels affiliated to the Russian state or public figures being removed from the platform, the foreign ministry itself had had videos taken down.

"YouTube carried out an act of direct censorship, prevented the free distribution of and access to information, thereby violating the rights of hundreds of thousands of our subscribers," she said.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva/Alexander MarrowEditing by Andrew Osborn and Gareth Jones)