European Central: YouTube Cracks Down On Separatists In Ukraine
AFP
There are a lot of uncertainties regarding the situation between Ukraine and Russia, but it is clear that Youtube has chosen how it will enforce community guidelines. YouTube has deactivated accounts that had content promoting Russian sovereignty over areas of Ukraine. Acting in typical fashion, YouTube has not specified which specific guidelines the YouTube channels violated. This has resulted in the company being criticized in the past and has caused frustration with content creators. However, in this situation this may be more welcome news for those who support Ukrainian sovereignty.
Part of the confusion over the Ukraine and Russia conflict is why there appears to be support for parts of Ukraine to leave Ukraine and instead be ruled by Russia. Part of this is due to a high percentage of Russians living in Crimea and Donetsk and Luhansk. While Ukraine made its intentions public after the Maidan revolution in 2014 to move towards Europe and away from Russia, this angered ethnic Russians and led to a referendum which was declared a sham. No international observers were present at the time of the referendum which had puzzling results. The referendum in Crimea allegedly had an 83 percent voter turnout with 96.7 percent favoring succession from Ukraine and instead joining Russia. This seems unlikely considering that Ukrainians and Crimea Tartars represent 40 percent of the peninsula’s population and are not considered supporters of Russian sovereignty over the region. Later a report leaked from the Russian President’s Human Rights Council giving a significantly lower turnout rate. Instead of 83 percent, the voter turnout may have been as low as 30 percent and only half voted to join Russia. Russia however has also justified its actions as a way of protecting Russian speakers.
Besides the Maidan revolution potentially leaving Ethnic Russians living in Ukraine feeling ostracized, Ukraine has strengthened the status of the Ukrainian language at the expense of Russian and other minority languages. Ukrainian is only the native language of 67 percent of the country, yet laws are attempting to make it the dominant language and even financially punish those who do business in another language, unless the customer specifically asks to switch languages. Businesses could face a 200 euro fine, which is almost half of the average monthly Ukrainian income. This seems to ignore businesses that already have regular customers and are familiar with what language their customers prefer to speak during any type of business transaction. News sites are required to not only have all articles available in Ukrainian, but the articles on the websites must also first appear to the reader in Ukranian. Schools are also required to teach in Ukrainian and businesses must have their website available in Ukrainian. A woman was so angry that when interviewed she made it clear that she would potentially move to Russia. As Ukraine has lost almost 10 million people since its peak, it should avoid driving out more.
The Ukrainian language was limited when Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, but these actions by the Ukrainian governments are occurring too quickly in the opposite direction. Ukraine clearly have pride for their language and culture but punishing minority language speakers is not the answer. The Ukrainian government can attempt to incentivize the use of the Ukrainian language but should punishing minority speakers which will only add to the problems of an already troubled country. Taras Kremin, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language feels that there is no issue punishing businesses due to having a year and a half to prepare for the law to come into effect. The irony is he cannot see how Ukraine does not appreciate how Ukrainian was previously suppressed yet is not trying to suppress other languages.
Going back to 1991, it was reported how excited Ukrainians were for the comeback of the letter G in Ukraine. This is because in 1933 the letter was banned by Joseph Stalin since the Russian alphabet did not have a letter the directly corresponded to the pronunciation. Taras Kremin has to put himself in the shoes of minority language speakers he has no issue punishing, which includes other languages besides Russian. Declaring Ukranian as the only official state language appears to place the Ukranian government in the role of language oppressor just as the Russian Empire and Soviet Union were for Ukraine. One such example of a language spoken in Ukraine besides Russian is the Crimean Tartar language, which happens to also be an endangered language. Currently it can only be studied at two universities as an individual program. The number of spots is also greatly limited, partially due to concerns over the ability of students to find employment after graduating.
By no means is Russia justified in invading Ukraine or taking any further drastic military actions against the country for legislation regarding language, yet it is unfortunate that Russia is trying to use a wrongdoing as an excuse. Time will tell if Ukraine continues to double down on insisting the Ukrainian language is used, or if it will instead embrace the multiculturalism and multilingualism that exists in the country. Youtube may have helped Ukraine by suppressing channels that promote parts of the country becoming part of Russia but this is not enough on its own to solve the crisis.
