A number of internet service providers in Chechnya have blocked access to the video sharing site YouTube over an anti-Islamic film that has sparked riots across the Middle East and North Africa, the Chechen government’s press service said on Monday.
The Chechen prosecutor’s office earlier instructed all providers operating in the North Caucasus republic to block access to YouTube, and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov warned that if “companies ignore the ruling they will be held liable.”
Last week prosecutors in several Russian regions asked internet service providers to block sites offering access to the video.
The Russian prosecutor general’s office has declared it extremist and is now seeking a court ruling to ban it in Russia. A Moscow court will consider the case on October 1.
Search giant Google, which owns YouTube, has already blocked access to the video in several Islamic countries in which the U.S.-produced amateur video, which denigrates Prophet Muhammad, has triggered unrest.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stephens and three embassy staff were killed during an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi earlier this month, after the film’s release.
