Russian social network VKontakte overtook YouTube in monthly web traffic for the first time in December, the RBC company news websitereported Wednesday, pointing out information from the research company Mediascope.The platform, run by the innovation company VK, has experienced a rise in traffic since August, when users in Russia began reporting issues with playback speeds on YouTube.Google, which has actually dealt with installing pressure from the Russian federal government since the 2022 intrusion of Ukraine, denied Moscows claimsthat the YouTube downturn arised from technical problems or purposeful actions on its part.According to Mediascope data pointed out by RBC, almost 92 million users in Russia visited VKontakte a minimum of once in December compared to 89.6 million who went to YouTube last month.YouTubes regular monthly web traffic decreased by 6% from December 2023 while VKontaktes traffic increased by 2.8%, according to the report.Authorities in Russia have tightened up control over the internet and media flexibilities recently simply as YouTube has actually ended up being an important platform for dissenting voices in the country.Rights groupssaythe large majority of criminal charges pushed against anti-war advocacy are based on material published to VKontakte and the messaging app Telegram.During his end-of-year interview last month, President Vladimir Putin implicated the U.S.
federal government of using Google for political functions and declared that YouTube was intentionally slowing down playback speeds in Russia.Putin included that YouTube was facing growing competition from domestic platforms, including VKontakte, where the son of Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko, Vladimir Kiriyenko, acts as CEO.VKontakte has sought tolurepopular Russian YouTubers onto its own VK Video platform through generous financial rewards.