Alienation from YouTube Prompts a Shift to Alternative Platforms
Russian designer and blogger Artemy Lebedev reported that his YouTube channel Most Honest News was blocked about a week after it launched. He shared the incident via his Telegram channel, asserting that the platform had removed the account shortly after its debut.
Lebedev added that a second channel, which had nearly 100,000 subscribers, was also banned within two days. He did not view these actions as a setback, noting that the team redirected attention to the main Most Honest News channel on VKontakte, a popular social network in Russia and beyond.
According to a blogger, YouTube does not intend to stop hosting new videos altogether. Instead, the plan is to publish content on alternative platforms where there is an audience.
Lebedev stated that he anticipates where the traffic is heading and is actively preparing for a presence across multiple platforms to reach viewers. This includes exploring underutilized channels that can sustain an engaged audience.
Beyond the move away from YouTube, Lebedev continued to publish content on Zen, describing the platform as another video hosting option rather than a decisive end to his publishing activities.
Earlier in the year, Lebedev launched a channel titled Honest News on YouTube, also referred to as SamyechestvenyeNovosti, where he offered weekly news summaries. He also began mirroring videos from another service named RuTube, expanding the reach of his content across different platforms.
The main YouTube channel was removed on February 22, 2023, due to alleged terms of service violations. At the time, the channel had accumulated more than 1.1 million subscribers, highlighting the scale of Lebedev’s online audience and the impact of platform decisions on content creators. (Source: Reuters)