The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Media has blocked Discord over violations.
According to a press release by the agency on 8 October, the social media app failed to comply with Russian laws meant to prevent bad actors from exploiting social platforms for illegal activities.
Discord fails in its responsibility
Discord was one of the registered social networks permitted to operate in Russia. As a part of the permission, the platform was responsible for finding and blocking unlawful content, but it failed in this responsibility.
As a result, the Russian government fined the company 3.5 mln rubles ($36,150) and has now banned it from serving Russians as well. A statement from the press release said:
“The access to the Discord is being restricted in connection of violation of requirements of Russian laws, compliance with which is required to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist services, recruitment of citizens to commit them, for drug sales, and in connection with unlawful information posting,”
Discord had it coming
Russia is one of the countries that take the regulation of social media seriously, and has been investigating Discord for a while.
Discord is one of the most popular instant messaging apps, with over 600 million users worldwide. Just last month, there were rumors of Russia considering the ban of the social platform within its jurisdiction.
This was in line with the country’s significant regulatory move against the gaming and entertainment industry in general.
The government had already issued at least five rulings against the social platform on 20 September, which have led to the ban.
With the ban, at least 4 million users are affected, representing 4% of the platform’s total number of registered users.
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