Blocking "some" requests in Youtube on Android - what was it from a technical point of view?

Question

Google

I must say right away that we will omit such moments as politics and the fact that Google has already released an "update" to fix this "bug" (although I personally did not update my application, apparently fixed on the server side)
What am I talking about:
The other day there was a scandal of such sort of: the youtube app was throwing a strange error when entering some keywords in the search. Moreover, the keywords related exclusively to opposition bloggers and the media, all other requests worked as usual.
What was it from a technical point of view? Breaking into? Sabotage of Russian Google?

Answer 1

IMHO: Google politely asked

Answer 2

Checking on real data)

Answer 3

Reconnaissance in force, what else. We checked whether it was possible to bend the Google, if possible, in what way and how effective the bending would be. We checked how Google behaves in general. Apparently the test was a success, since everyone rolled back so quickly.
Description with screenshots