YouTube (part of Google) removed the channel of Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus Show VL, in standard terms – “for violating community rules.” They also reported that their friend’s Cart ONLINE channel has been removed from the video hosting service.
“This political move confirms that the company is using its popularity for discriminatory purposes, and that users around the world are afraid that Western politicians will find out what Western politicians are really thinking. Trying to clean up the tracks, YouTube has decided to completely demolish everything that is a threat to them,” he said.
— commented Blocking on Telegram channel “Show ViL”.
It has been clarified that their content is available on Rutube video hosting, VKontakte, Telegram and Reddit.
demand from the British authorities
INSIDE speech socialbites.ca and Alexei Stolyarov (Lexus) suggested that the blocking of their channel was related to a request from the British authorities and was caused by a joke made to former British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
“This is probably not the first, but probably the third blocking of our content already, in connection with our recent joke to former British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Moreover, at the request of the British authorities, they first sent us a notification that this joke would be removed, and then wrote that they have decided to remove our channel in general, since we are already on their blacklist. “We still have a lot of work to do with the UK, though, because they started blocking us after the British requested it from the Ministry of Defence,” he said.
According to him, YouTube has been actively blocking Russian channels lately, and it is “pointless” to consider video hosting as a serious platform.
“YouTube has long proven that Russian citizens can be deleted there without any rights, and no one will restore anything there.”
Lexus noted.
He also noted that since YouTube does not have a representative office in Russia, Russian bloggers are not legally protected from blocking in any way.
He also clarified that YouTube is not their main platform and is mainly used for broadcasting to a Western audience, with the main material being posted on Rutube.
“For Western audiences, we posted copies of our recordings on YouTube. And it lived pretty well there, gaining some foreign subscribers but now apparently the UK complained after the joke and decided to delete it again,” he said.
Previous bans
In March 2022, the pranksters’ account was removed from YouTube after videos were posted with British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and then UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The jokers introduced themselves to Wallace as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. During the call, Wallace said that the country is running out of anti-tank guided missiles as London has transferred almost all of its stockpiles to Kiev. He also spoke of the UK’s interest in Ukraine’s accession to NATO.
Wallace did not rule out the possibility of helping Kiev in the development of nuclear weapons, but noted that Moscow probably “would not like it very much”.
On March 17 of the same year, Wallace announced that he was the victim of a prankster who called him on the phone and introduced himself as Denys Shmygal, the Prime Minister of Ukraine. A few days after that, the UK Ministry of Defense asked YouTube to remove the video from the platform – the British military department thought it could pose a threat to the country’s national security.
In the same meeting, Wallace called the volunteers who went to Ukraine to participate in the fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and complained about the poor conditions as losers. Reminding the Minister that the Cardiff volunteer had reported the dire conditions, Wallace said he could not be held responsible for “the idiots who go and give media interviews”.
“Shmyhal” also participated in a conversation with the head of the UK Home Office. Then Priti Patel felt that Russia should be removed from Interpol because “the Russians acted like barbarians” and tried to use the system for other purposes.
The jokers suggested that Patel also consider handing over the properties of sanctioned Russian businessmen to Ukrainians. The Minister agreed with this view: “Yes, this is definitely the approach we follow in our policy. <...> “We want to do justice for Ukraine and for Ukrainians,” he said.
At the end of the conversation, the jokers asked the minister to say hello to Vovan and Lexus, who “shot down many Russian planes”. Patel said hello to them, calling them “incredible heroes.”
In June 2022, former US President George W. Bush clashed with Vovan and Lexus. They then spoke on behalf of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and asked the former US President if it was true that he “did not want to include Russia in NATO”.
“NO. I wanted it [Россия] It was on the border of NATO. I wanted Ukraine to join NATO. “For a while I thought Russia would be more accommodating, but then Putin changed dramatically,” Bush said.
The former president also responded positively to Zelensky’s remarks that there is now “a war of the Western world against the Russians” in Ukraine.
Separately, Vovan and Lexus met with Bush, the former president of Georgia (2008-2013), who in 2015 was the head of the Odessa regional administration and an adviser to the then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. On behalf of Zelensky, the bloggers claimed that the Ukrainian leader “fired” Saakashvili for “constantly taking drugs” at work and “asking for a lot of money”. Bush laughed at this and then waved his hand, saying that Saakashvili was a “violent man” and “there were problems with him”.
The jokers’ channel was also removed from YouTube after the interview with Bush was published.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.