YouTube Blocks RT DE Broadcast Channel on Day of Its Launch

Earlier in the day, RT launched a 24-hour news service known as 'RT DE' in German that will broadcast live news, talk shows and documentaries from the network's studios in Moscow and Berlin.

YouTube has blocked new channel RT DE on the same day when TV broadcasting was launched, RT said on Thursday.

"YouTube has blocked the new channel RT DE - RT auf Sendung. This happened on the day of the launch of television broadcasting in German. Live broadcast was on. We are trying to understand the reasons [behind YouTube’s decision]," RT said in a statement.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova took a swipe at YouTube on Thursday over the blockage of the newly-launched RT DE channel in German, quipping that Moscow did not expect anything better from the online video platform.

"While I was giving an interview to RT DE, YouTube blocked their new channel. And all this on the day when broadcasting was launched. And we did not expect anything else. As the saying goes, everyone congratulates on the premiere as best they can: somebody with flowers and good wishes, and somebody with crushed glass planted into shoes," Zakharova said in her Telegram channel.

The launch of RT DE has been surrounded by controversy in the European Union, with German media and politicians accusing the broadcaster of manipulations with facts targeting Germans of Russian origin.

In August, RT DE was officially denied a broadcasting license by Luxembourg, which cited "information and analysis by the German authorities". In September, YouTube removed two RT DE channels without the right to recover, for alleged "violations of community rules". At the same time, RT DE was in fourth place in terms of influence among the German-language media, bypassing Deutsche Welle and other German media, according to Tubular Labs.

RT in German was launched in 2014 online and on social media.