Spotify Technology SA refuses to comply with the censorship imposed in the country and suspends its service in Russia.
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According to Reuters, Spotify expects its Russian services to be fully suspended in early April. The impending suspension follows the company’s decision earlier this month to close its offices and suspend its premium accounts in Russia. The Swedish company had previously restricted the broadcast of Russian state media. Notably content from RT and Sputnik after the EU suspended their licenses.
« Spotify continues to believe that it is extremely important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to provide reliable and independent news and information in the region. Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating freedom of expression and criminalizing certain types of information puts the safety of Spotify employees and perhaps even our listeners at risk. After carefully considering our options and current circumstances, we have made the difficult decision to completely suspend our service in Russia ».
Spotify refuses to censor its content
The new Russian law that punishes up to 15 years in prison spreading ‘fake news’ about the military is the main reason for its closure in the country.
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the 10 marsat Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference, the streaming platform’s CFO Paul Vogel had spoken about the removal of premium accounts in Russia. This decision already led to the loss of around 1.5 million premium subscribers in the first quarter of this year.
However, the service will be made completely unavailable in the country, unless the Russians choose to free themselves from censorship.
This shutdown comes on top of everything that Russians can no longer do on the Internet. This bilateral rupture is accentuated day by day, isolating this population more and more. It remains to know, how long will they endure this return to cold war times and the USSR.
Source : Reuters
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