Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked the popular messaging app Discord for its apparent violation of anti-terror legislation, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday.
In a statement, Roskomnadzor told TASS that Discord’s management had failed to prevent the platform from being used for “terrorist and extremist services” and the “recruitment of citizens to commit them”, as well as for the sale of drugs and “posting unlawful information”.
The block comes a week after Roskomnadzor ordered Discord to remove almost 1,000 posts it deemed illegal, including ones it said contained “child pornography, calls for extremism, the involvement of minors in illegal activity, calls for suicide, LGBT propaganda and pro-drug content”.
In September, a Moscow court fined the app 3.5 million rubles (€33,000) for failing to “independently identify and block illegal content”, TASS reported.
While Discord was popular with members of Russia’s IT and gaming communities, boasting a reported 30-40 million users in the country, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it was also increasingly used in Russian military circles, including for the coordination of drone strikes.
The ban drew criticism from Russian pro-war bloggers such as Roman Alyokhin, who is also an adviser to the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, who said that Roskomnadzor’s decision to block the platform had “inflicted damage on the front, likely leading to increased losses among our soldiers and equipment.”
The regulator’s decision, which followed a similarly worded ban on messaging app Signal in August, was also criticised by former Russian presidential candidate and State Duma Deputy Vladislav Davankov, who argued that no Russian platform could fully replace Discord.
“At this rate, soon there won’t be any social networks or services in the country that can be accessed without a VPN”, Davankov said, adding that he intended to appeal against Roskomnadzor’s decision.