YouTube questioned by Russian regulators about restricted Crimea movie

Google faced pressure from Russia to reverse course Friday amid growing concerns about it restricting access to a movie uploaded to YouTube about Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian state media reported that Roskomnadzor, the government’s internet watchdog, asked Google to remove all restrictions from the film, a documentary made by state TV called “Crimea. The Way Home.”

The film has been viewable on Google’s YouTube since it was released in March 2015 around the one-year anniversary of Russia annexing Crimea, triggering sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

YouTube has age-restricted the video for containing material that may be “inappropriate or offensive to some audiences,” however, and users are twice asked if they want to proceed before viewing it.

Russian state media reported that Roskomnadzor sent a letter to Google demanding it remove all restrictions from the film and offer an explanation as to why they were applied in the first place

Roskomnadzor accused YouTube of violating “key principles of free distribution of information and unhindered access to it” and said it considered the restrictions to be censorship, the reports said.

Google subsequently explained later Friday that the restrictions were put in place more than a year earlier on account of the film containing scenes of violence, Russian media reported.

Roskomnadzor’s row with Google come on the heels of the Russian agency taking action earlier this week against another U.S. platform, Twitter, for not heeding censorship demands made by Moscow.

On Wednesday, Roskomnadzor said it would slow access to Twitter across Russia — and potentially block it entirely — because thousands of posts it wants pulled from the platform remain online.

Andrei Kondrashov, the filmmaker behind the Crimea movie, proposed Roskomnadzor take similar action against YouTube when appearing on Russian television Friday, the state-run TASS outlet reported.