MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian internet monitoring

services reported a mass outage on the availability of video

hosting site YouTube on Thursday as Russian authorities step up

criticism of the platform.

Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf said there had

been thousands of glitches reported about YouTube in Russia.

Users said they could only access YouTube via virtual private

networks (VPNs).

"YouTube is not working," one anonymous user said in

comments on the site.

Reuters reporters in Russia were unable to access YouTube.

The website remained available via some mobile devices.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment

on Thursday. Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor

also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

YouTube is one of the last major bastions of free expression

on the Russian internet, where the site continues to host

materials by Kremlin opponents that have been largely removed

from other social media sites popular in Russia.

The site's download speeds have notably slowed in recent

weeks, for which Russian lawmakers have blamed YouTube owner

Alphabet's Google, something the company disputes.

Alexander Khinshtein, head of a parliamentary committee on

information policy, warned last month that YouTube speeds would

drop by as much as 70%.

He said the degradation was "a necessary step, directed not

against Russian users, but against the administration of a

foreign resource that still believes it can violate and ignore

our legislation without punishment."

Khinshtein later explicitly blamed the slowdown on Google's

failure to invest in Russian infrastructure, such as its local

cache servers, something YouTube rejected.

A YouTube spokesperson said last week it was aware of

reports that some people were unable to access YouTube in

Russia. This was not because of any actions on technical issues

on its part, it said.