The full-fledged operation of the YouTube video service in Russia is gradually ceasing. What do scientists and popularizers of science from various fields with millions of views on their personal YouTube channels think about this? How do they assess the reaction of Russian society, will they continue to run channels in the event of a complete block, and do they plan to move to Rutube, VK Video or Zen? Astrophysicists Sergey Popov, Vladimir Surdin, historian Mikhail Rodin, popularizers of science Vlad Goncharuk and Evgeniya Timonova, and astronauts Vitaly Egorov answer.
The Russian authorities have been planning to “slow down” or even block the most popular video hosting site since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The reason is clear: there is more YouTube in Russia than YouTube. It is not so much a video hosting site as Channel One in the era of mass mobile Internet. However, there is another important reason for YouTube’s incredible popularity among all segments of the population. As in the vast majority of countries in the world, in Russia it is the main place for free enlightenment and education, knowledge exchange, as well as a “department” where all modern science “lives”, in the form of scientific conferences, congresses, seminars and symposiums. At a recent T-invariant stream, we discussed this topic in detail with Sergei Popov, an astrophysicist and one of the most famous popularizers of astronomy in the Russian-speaking world. The total number of views of Sergey Popov’s videos, lectures and interviews, according to his estimates, exceeds 30 million, his channel, where he has been collecting most of his speeches for several years, has more than 2 million views. Sergey Popov stated in our stream “It’s Complicated” that if YouTube completely stops working, he will not move to RuTube, VK Video, Zen or other Russian censored platforms.
«Everything is complicated» — a weekly broadcast on the T-invariant YouTube channel. Complex news, complex questions and complex topics. Invited guests from the world of science, and not only. Everything as you like. Every Monday at 19:00 Moscow time.
«I am a conservative person. Just today (August 12) I posted a new video “Gravity vs. Rotation” and I don’t intend to move to other platforms. If for some reason YouTube becomes unavailable to me, well, that means there won’t be any more videos,” said Sergey Popov.
T-invariant decided to ask other scientists and science popularizers from various fields what they think about YouTube ceasing to operate in Russia (at least in the form we are used to).
- How do you feel about the gradual blocking of YouTube in Russia? How did you react to this news? How do you feel about society’s reaction?
- What will you do when YouTube completely stops working in Russia without a VPN and all the numbers drop exponentially? Will you continue to run the channel or stop?
- Will you start a channel on alternative Russian platforms? Rutube? VK Video? Zen? Others? Please name all the ones to which you plan to transfer old content and publish new content. If you do not plan to develop your channel on these platforms, then why?
“I met this news with irritation”
Vladimir Surdin, astronomer, senior researcher at the GAISh named after P.K. Sternberg MSU, associate professor of the Physics Department of MSU, runs the channel «Nezemnoy Podcast» (more than 43 million views, 448 thousand subscribers)
Vladimir Surdin. Photo: https://news.tpu.ru
1. Attitude to blocking
This makes it much more difficult for me to work and receive new information. I met this news with irritation. So far, I have not seen a clear reaction from society. They are adapting.
2. What will you do next?
I will host a channel on YouTube : we are watched not only in Russia. We will try to find alternative channels for our compatriots.
3. Will you use other Russian platforms?
We are currently exploring options.
“There is no replacement for YouTube either in Russia or in the world”
Vlad Goncharuk, popularizer of science, channel SciOne (more than 120 million views, 1.3 million subscribers)
Vlad Goncharuk. Photo: https://friendly2.me
1. Attitude to the blocking
Since March 2022, I expected this like a blow from an axe. But it turned out to be something like a file. I tried to prepare, to come up with something so that this would not be the only source of income for me and my family. But in exile, journalists, people tied to their countries and audiences, have little choice. So I’m not panicking, but the feeling that my family and I are again over the abyss has returned. I expect nothing from society – like from a person in a coma. We are not talking about those who are for war for the sake of profit, joining the strong, or out of fear. We are talking about those who are trying to live, distancing themselves. So, even without YouTube, they have had such good reasons to choose this survival strategy in recent years that it is unlikely that YouTube can be stronger than war and force them to declare their dissatisfaction to their superiors. They evade the state in every way possible, because otherwise they have to be either with it or against it. They have left society with no other options. Can I condemn them for this? No, in conditions when no one within the system can say what they can get into trouble for: from administrative charges to criminal charges and torture with death. The state in Russia is at the peak of its strength (internal, because neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nor the Russian Guard, nor the special forces of the internal forces are participating in the war, several million people are holding the internal front). And it would be strange not to understand that people are now more than ever afraid to make any unnecessary move.
2. What will you do next?
I will continue to run the channel as long as it does not threaten the survival of my family. Therefore, my fate will be entirely in the hands of the people who watch me. Before the blocking, I did not dare to ask for full support, so I kept the advertising model with integrations within the videos. But now it remains to take a leap of faith.
3. Will you use other Russian platforms?
Colleagues are persuading me to at least duplicate new videos on VK Video. Other platforms are technically so much worse (in comparison with VK) that we do not even discuss them. To make a decision, I must understand for myself why I am doing this: to give the opportunity to watch to those who want to, but cannot; to take care of part of the audience?
Save the advertising part of the income to increase the chances of survival? I’m afraid it’s like a poultice for a dead man. Anyone who wants to can watch YouTube anyway. And those who don’t want to are unlikely to actively watch VK Video either.
Moreover, the recommendation system practically doesn’t work there. It is thanks to it that YouTube channels can gain an audience with their creativity, and catch the eye of those who will be interested in them. VK Video will simply postpone the oblivion and media death of most projects. It’s a video hospice. There is no replacement for YouTube either in Russia or in the world. It is a huge system that has been developing for years with investments by its participants in the form of millions of man-hours of work and hundreds of billions of dollars. You can always point to China. But this is the right to do only for those who have a domestic market of one and a half billion viewers and hundreds of millions of active consumers. This is clearly not about Russia.
“Other platforms? No”
Evgenia Timonova, naturalist, author of the channel “Everything is like animals” (more than 42 million views, 430 thousand subscribers)
Evgenia Timonova. Photo: https://eusp.org
1. Attitude to blocking
Bad. It’s sad.
2. What are you going to do with the channel next?
We’ll see depending on the mood.
3. Will you use other Russian platforms?
No.
“My main task is to provide people with modern scientific information about history. This is, to put it mildly, not mainstream”
Mikhail Rodin, historian, journalist, author of the program “Rodina slonov” and the magazine Proshloe (more than 15 million views and 140 thousand subscribers)
Mikhail Rodin. Photo: https://arhe.msk.ru
1. Attitude to blocking
Overall, nothing surprising happened: the course towards gradual tightening of the screws did not begin yesterday and not with the start of the war. The entire logic of the development of events suggests that any “unaccountable activity” should be stopped, and even more so — the free exchange of information. Television was cleaned out completely long ago, digital media — since the start of the war, Facebook and Instagram are banned. And it was just a matter of time that they would come for YouTube. What’s next? Everyone is being driven onto “state” platforms, where it is easier to exercise control and quickly censor information. So the next step is tightening the screws there.
The reaction of society, in general, is also quite expected. I wrote about the fact that polarization and division of society would grow back on February 24, 2022. And that is what is happening. This is evident from the reaction to the “slowdown” of YouTube. There are people who are sincerely convinced that “it happened by itself.” There are people who are happy: “We don’t need this propaganda dump.” There are people who don’t care at all, but are ready to use a VPN. There are those who will watch only YouTube on principle and will not want to register on social networks associated with the state.
People living in Russia have to adapt in order not to go crazy. Even if they have some oppositional thoughts, they still unconsciously (or consciously) try to soften the picture of the world in their heads: “Well, that’s okay, it’s not that bad, it could be worse. No, well, if you think about it, Rutube is not that bad… if YouTube was blocked.” People who decided to leave are becoming more and more radicalized. From the outside, what is happening in Russia seems absolutely grotesque. The view of the same situation becomes fundamentally different.
2. What will you do next with the channel?
Throughout my professional career, I have tried to do the same thing – talk about modern historical science. I worked on television for most of my life, then on radio (where the flagship project “Homeland of Elephants” arose), then we created the online magazine Proshloe and only then came to YouTube. For me, this is just one of many platforms where I have worked. For the video format, it is definitely the most convenient, large and effective – by the way, with excellent, fast support service in different languages.
My audience on YouTube is now structured like this: 56% – Russia, 44% – the rest of the world. Moreover, the audience is distributed quite evenly around the world. For example, I have more viewers from the US and Germany than from Kazakhstan, although it would seem that the Russian-speaking audience should be larger. Of course, after the war began, the percentages changed: it was about 75% from Russia (if memory serves). That is, the relocates greatly affected the numbers, but not so much as to turn them upside down.
Therefore, of course, there is no point in stopping the YouTube channel, and even more so – to stop popular science activities. I currently have more than 140 thousand subscribers on the Proshloe channel, and even if the number of views falls by half, this is not a reason to stop working on the platform.
3. Will you use other Russian platforms?
Historically, it so happened that the first social network where I created a community was VKontakte in 2015. Then I just started posting audio recordings of the radio program “Homeland of Elephants” there. Then, when my colleagues and I created the Proshloe magazine, we tried different platforms. So formally, there are accounts everywhere.
My main goal is to provide people with modern scientific information about history. This is, to put it mildly, not mainstream. It is customary to tell “stories” about history: wars, who slept with whom, who killed whom. I try to convey how modern science understands large historical processes. Accordingly, the pursuit of the widest possible audience has never been a priority for the Proshloe magazine. I make boring programs for thoughtful people with a good background. This is niche media. Therefore, the basis for monetizing the magazine is donations. Specific people pay money to receive information that they consider important.
It is logical that I make important decisions based on the opinions of these people. When they started blocking YouTube, I conducted a survey in a closed chat of sponsors: on which alternative platforms should content be duplicated. In addition to 70% who were ready to continue watching YouTube, 50% spoke in favorVK and TG (you could choose several answers). That’s why I’ve already started duplicating new programs on these platforms.
I don’t see any point in developing Zen and Rutube — the more platforms there are, the more spread out the statistics are, the harder it is to collect feedback, the more minor problems with different requirements for video design, etc. Personally, both Zen and Rutube seem inconvenient to me, the audience doesn’t actively ask for this, so let them “lie down” for now. From the outside, this may seem like a trifle, but in Telegram, for example, the 4GB video size limit is an extra few hours for rendering a video from an editing program specifically for a specific platform. Somewhere you can use PNG files in the design, somewhere – no. In general, an extra working day accumulates that could be spent on working on content. And since I am now a “lone warrior in the field”, working time is the main resource.
And, of course, this whole situation only encourages us to develop the English-language channel Proshloe.The Past. Firstly, in order to diversify the audience and income, and secondly, now it is especially important and interesting to observe Russian science in an international context. Everything I do in English, I always translate into Russian and post on the main Proshloe channel, which means it enriches our culture.
“Coming out to Russian platforms with such content is like counting the days until the channel is blocked”
Vitaly Egorov, popularizer of cosmonautics, channel “Green Cat’s Open Space” (more than 27 million views and 74 thousand subscribers)
Vitaly Egorov. Photo: https://moskvichmag.ru
1. Attitude to blocking
A stupid but expected idea of the Russian government, which is trying to wage war on common sense. I met it with the thought “Unpleasant, but expected.”
I have not yet seen any noticeable reaction from society, some viewers complain about the deterioration of YouTube quality, someone shares life hacks for bypassing blocking. In general, it seems that this initiative of the Russian government only increases the digital literacy of people who are mastering VPN and learning to bypass blocking.
2. What will you do next with the channel?
I will continue to broadcast on YouTube, since a significant part of my audience is not from Russia and the blocking will not affect them.
3. Will you use other Russian platforms?
In my videos, I talk, among other things, about how Putin and Russia’s policies – the seizure of Crimea and the attack on Ukraine – affect Russian cosmonautics and science. Going to Russian resources with such content is like counting the days until the channel is blocked. So I don’t see any point in even starting. There is a YouTube channel, there is Telegram – these are my main broadcasting channels now.
Text: Editorial T-invariant
Editors 14.08.2024