Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has just announced that it will apply “Coercive Measures” against a number of foreign IT companies. The list of affected businesses includes several important messaging and social networking projects – TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest.
‘Breach of Russian law’ was named as the reason for the nationwide sanctions. Roskomnadzor further explained on its websitethat these companies did not follow formal procedures regarding the deletion of prohibited information.
These new measures will remain in place for an indefinite period, or until companies comply with state regulations.
This is not the first time that sanctions have been imposed on the largest foreign companies in the domestic internet market. Similar reasons were raised when companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Telegram and TikTok were fined for refusing to remove content upon request from Russian censors.
