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Russia announced on Tuesday that it banned the Discord messaging platform for not respecting the law, in a new example of the control that authorities exercise over the internet.
“Access to the Discord messaging service is restricted due to violation of the requirements of Russian legislation, compliance with which is necessary to prevent the use of the messaging service for terrorist and extremist purposes,” Roskomnadzor, the Russian regulator, stated in a statement. of telecommunications.
For several years, Russia has ordered foreign platforms to remove content it considers “illegal”, imposing relatively modest but periodic fines if they do not comply with its requirements.
In July 2023, Discord, created in the United States in 2015, was fined six million rubles [casi 57.000 euros al cambio actual] by a Moscow court for not removing content considered “illegal,” but the company “ignored the court’s decision,” Roskomnadzor lamented.
On October 1, Roskomnadzor again ordered Discord to remove almost 1,000 items of banned content, but the regulator claims that the platform did not do so. He also claims that the messaging service “is actively used by criminals.”
Discord, very popular among young Russians, is still less used than Telegram, preferred by the general public.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has considerably strengthened its control over the digital sector, severely affected by Western sanctions.
The Russian government has also tightened its control over the Internet, banning several Western websites and social networks where its critics could express themselves freely, such as Facebook, Instagram and X.
However, these tools can still be accessed from Russia using a VPN.
Discord, an American company based in San Francisco, offers a free platform for exchanging text, audio and video. Its official website claims to have 150 million monthly active users.
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