Russia made it harder for citizens to watch YouTube. They’re going to VKontakte instead.

The Kremlin is finding ways to limit YouTube‘s influence in Russia, and a local platform is rising as a result. According to recent findings, VKontakte got more monthly web traffic than YouTube in Russia during December 2024.

The news of VKontakte’s ascendance comes from RBC, which cited data from Mediascope. VKontakte reached 92 million users in Russia during the final month of the year, whereas YouTube’s total dipped below 90 million.

YouTube’s declining numbers in Russia are the result of a years-long disagreement over the status of state-sponsored YouTube channels, like the ones operated by media outlet Russia Today (RT). After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, YouTube demonetized many of those channels, citing “extraordinary circumstances.”

Russian YouTube users began noticing dramatic slowdowns on the YouTube app in 2024. The apparent throttling intensified later in the year, with federal censorship agency Roskomnadzor stating ithat “numerous violations of Russian legislation and disrespect for our country and citizens are grounds for taking action against YouTube.” The Kremlin has also taken legal action against Google, seeking damages greater than the world’s GDP.

Thanks to YouTube’s declining traffic in Russia, Slavic creators who once dominated our Tubefilter charts have noticeable viewership decreases. According to Gospel Stats, kids’ channel BorisKateFamily went from 1.6 billion monthly views in March 2024 to 325 million monthly views in November. Other kidfluencer channels with ties to Russia, such as Like Nastya

and Vlad and Niki, now operate internationally out of cities like Miami and Dubai.

With the slowdowns rendering YouTube unusable for many in Russia, 18-year-old VKontakte has risen up the domestic social media rankings. Until recently, the so-called “Russian Facebook” was best known in the West for its notable leadership. It was co-founded by Pavel Durov, the entrepreneur who later became CEO of Telegram and made headlines when he was arrested for his failure to address criminal activity on the messaging app.

The current CEO of VKontakte parent company VK Group is Vladimir Kiriyenko, a Putin ally who the Biden Administration sanctioned in 2022. VK’s ties to the global elite should send a message to U.S. politicians who are preparing to enact a TikTok ban in the coming days: The shutdown of one social media hub will always benefit another, and those beneficiaries come with their own sets of complications.