is a Russian state-owned alternative to YouTube.

The Kremlin has been promoting

the homegrown network, RuTube,

as part of a battle for Russian users and their minds.

That's because in the country

social media platforms have increasingly become

one of the main sources of information

challenging state television.

- YouTube is the most important platform

for millions of people.

- [Narrator] So, we examine the Russian video platform

at the center of the Kremlin's push to attract users

away from foreign networks,

limiting their access to independent news

during the war in Ukraine.

Owned by a Russian state company,

RuTube is a video platform almost as old as YouTube

and visually very similar to it

and the Kremlin has been outspoken about its potential.

(speaker speaking in Russian)

Since the war in Ukraine started,

YouTube has been one of the last sources

of alternative news in Russia.

That's because Instagram and Facebook

are blocked in the country.

That happened after the parent company Meta

barred access to some state channels in Europe,

following requests from the European Union

and British authorities.

YouTube remains available in Russia

but there are concerns about its future there,

especially after the Kremlin and RuTube

have been on a mission to draw people away

from the American network.

(speaker speaking in Russian)

The company has partnered with some popular vloggers

and offered content creators 100% of the revenue

from ad views during the first 40 days after joining.

The incentive came after YouTube paused monetization

in Russia as a response to its aggression in Ukraine.

This means vloggers can no longer make money

from ad views from users in Russia.

A month later, some popular Russian celebrities and vloggers

who were on YouTube also started using RuTube.

The platform's usership has also grown

as the Kremlin encouraged government departments,

universities and state-backed media outlets

to migrate their content from YouTube to RuTube.

- [Male Voice] Top Blog.

- [Narrator] And Moscow is investing

in a new generation of vloggers

with the program teaching Russians how to become successful

on domestic platforms like RuTube.

But the government support is one reason

some users don't feel like switching.

- There is no trust to anything made by the government

especially in order to replace something

already good and foreign.

(speaking in Russian)

- [Narrator] Leionid Pashkowski is a Russian speaking

travel blogger and journalist

with more than 1 million followers on YouTube.

He says he's skeptical about RuTube

replacing YouTube for Russian viewers.

- I just tried to watch something

or find something in there

and there was no views counters under the videos.

- [Narrator] And data from analytics firm, Similarweb

shows that there are fewer users on RuTube than on YouTube.

In May, RuTube had some 38 million visits,

a number dwarfed by the nearly 2 billion visits to YouTube

only from Russia.

Some users can be put off by RuTube

because of censorship concerns

which begin to emerge when uploading a video.

According to RuTube's content curation info page,

getting a video on the platform can take up to 24 hours

as its moderation team watches every video

before other users can access it.

And RuTube says, "It adheres to the observance of the law

and generally accepted norms of morality."

It couldn't be determined if all videos

go through human creation or how the platform decides

what videos to check manually or automatically.

- Any type of independent creators and political activists

cannot rely on RuTube.

- [Narrator] Gregory Asmolov studies the Russian internet

at King's College London.

He says, even if content that's not aligned

with the Kremlin's rhetoric made it onto YouTube,

its algorithms wouldn't promote it.

- And that's why YouTube is used by those

who are willing to find some kind of space

to express their voice.

- [Narrator] YouTube also curates content.

According to the company's community guidelines,

its policies prohibit hate speech, misinformation

and harmful or dangerous content.

YouTube also says it uses human moderators

and an upload process that automatically screens

for potential issues before posting.

But the uploading time is faster

and the company says it can take anywhere from a few minutes

to several hours based on the file size and bandwidth.

YouTube didn't comment on its content moderation criteria

and the challenge from RuTube in Russia.

- YouTube definitely is still serving in Russia.

- [Narrator] The American tech giant has said

it's important to let people in Russia have access

to independent news.

- YouTube will be blocked.

People in Russia will be closed in a bubble

of just Russian information and just propaganda.

- [Narrator] RuTube and its parent company Gazprom-Media

didn't respond to a request for comment about censorship

and view count concerns.

The Kremlin said its promotion of RuTube

started long before the conflict in Ukraine

as it's always seen the potential of the platform.

As RuTube tries to gain momentum and take on YouTube,

internet media experts say it'll require

a really important quality

that's one of the most difficult to replicate.

- That lacks the global spirit of user generated content

that you can see on YouTube.

Therefore, we can see that YouTube continues

to be extremely popular in Russia

and RuTube is not able to replace YouTube

as a local alternative.