MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Moscow is calling on YouTube to abandon its politically motivated policing of content, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing Friday, commenting on the fact that the global video hosting service blocked an investigative film into the Malaysian Boeing crash in Ukraine in 2014.

She emphasized that the movie delves deeply and takes a closer look into the version that the Ukrainian Air Forces were involved in the tragic incident. The investigation was uploaded to YouTube by Russia’s Ukraina.ru outlet.

"On November 10, [YouTube] moderators said that the investigative film about the Malaysian Boeing crash in east Ukraine, I quote, ‘violated the community guidelines of the platform’ and blocked it before the premier. <…> It is hard to explain this act of censorship other than being an attempt by certain interested parties to purge alternative versions of the 2014 tragedy from the global airwaves. We are calling on the YouTube administration to reconsider its decision and, generally, abandon this politically motivated policing [of content]," she noted. 

The diplomat emphasized that the film was deleted ahead of the resumption of hearings into the plane crash scheduled for November 12. "These actions by the hosting service violate its audience’s right to freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers. This is article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Or does YouTube believe that it is also violates the platform’s rules?" Zakharova added.

She recalled that video hosting service is controlled by Google. "Therefore, we expect that the relevant international structures and human rights organizations will react accordingly to the American corporation’s actions and [they] will assess them appropriately," the diplomat concluded.