YouTube Terminates Account Publishing Hoax Videos of UK Ministers Over Russian Link

Russian pranksters (L-R) Vladimir "Vovan" Kuznetsov, 30, and Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov, 28, give an interview to AFP at a bar in Moscow, on March 14, 2016. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images)

YouTube has removed an account that published hoax video calls with British ministers that the UK said were doctored and part of the Kremlin’s “disinformation” on Ukraine.

The Google-owned video platform didn’t find breaches to its “community guidelines,” but said the termination of channel “Vovan222prank” on Friday was a part of its “ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia.”

The termination came after the channel released eight videos featuring British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel—who thought they were speaking to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal—two days after the UK government’s public call to remove the two clips released by Tuesday citing national security concerns.

The Russian imposers, Vladimir “Vovan” Kuznetsov and Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov, prank-called Patel on March 15 and Wallace on March 17, posing as Ukraine’s prime minister, and began releasing daily excerpts of the Wallace call on Monday.

A spokesperson for 10 Downing Street said on Tuesday that the UK believes the Russian state was responsible for the prank, but that he was “unable to go into more detail about the information that sits behind that.”

After the reported effort to lobby YouTube to remove the first video didn’t appear successful, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Wednesday published on Twitter a letter it wrote to YouTube the day before, insisting the social media giant removes or blocks access to the two “doctored” clips in line with its own campaign of blocking access around the world to channels associated with Russian state-funded media.

The MoD said the clips are “Russian disinformation” and pose “a substantial risk” to the UK’s national security, its defence commitments to NATO, and other international partners, and the “international unity working to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal invasion.”

It also suggested YouTube would run the risk of being “a conduit for Russian propaganda“ and being ”associated with the potential consequences of this type of media manipulation” if it allows the videos to remain.

In the days following the MoD’s public letter, Vovan222prank published more excerpts of the two prank calls and what they claimed were “complete” versions of the calls with parts that were “likely to affect the national security of the UK” deleted.

The two pranksters, whose many high-profile targets over the years include then-British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, English musician Elton John, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and British royal Prince Harry, have previously denied accusations that they have links to Russian security services.

Reacting to YouTube’s decision to delete the channel, a government spokeswoman said, “The decision to remove material was for YouTube to make. UK Government had called on YouTube to remove Russian state disinformation and so we welcome their decision.”