Russia's communications regulator has blocked instant messaging platform Discord for violating Russian law, the TASS news agency reported on Tuesday, making the San Francisco-based company the latest foreign technology platform to be restricted in Russia.
Discord did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia has for several years ordered foreign technology platforms to remove content it regards as illegal, issuing relatively small but regular fines when it rules that companies have failed to comply.
The regulator, Roskomnadzor, last week ordered Discord to delete almost 1,000 items it deemed illegal and has previously fined the company for failing to remove banned content.
Moscow blocked Twitter, which has since rebranded as X, as well as Meta Platforms' Facebook and Instagram soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Discord Blocked in Russia
(translated from Russian)
Roskomnadzor explained that access was restricted due to violation of legal requirements
Roskomnadzor (RKN) has blocked the Discord platform in Russia for violating legal requirements. This was reported to TASS by the agency's press service.
"Access to the Discord messenger is restricted due to the violation of the requirements of Russian legislation, the implementation of which is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, the recruitment of citizens to commit them, the sale of drugs, in connection with the posting of illegal information," the press service reported.
Earlier, Roskomnadzor sent a demand to the administration of the Discord messenger to remove 947 illegal materials. Several Internet pages with such materials were never removed, the department reported.
"In addition, in 2023, the court imposed a fine of 6 million rubles on the company for failing to remove illegal information - the messenger ignored the court decision," RKN added.
Since March 2024, Discord has been included in the register of social networks, which obliges it to independently identify and block illegal content. The company does not comply with the requirements of the law, in connection with which the court imposed a fine of 3.5 million rubles.
Since July 2024, Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have added 14 links to Discord platform pages to the Unified Register of Prohibited Information, according to the register data.
