[Regnum] Roskomnadzor (RKN) blocked the Discord messenger in Russia for violating legal requirements, according to the agency’s order.
“Access to the Discord messenger has been restricted due to the violation 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,” TASS quotes the agency as saying.
The press service recalled that earlier, RNC sent a number of demands to the messenger administration to remove prohibited content, but the materials remained on the platform.
On October 1, Regnum reported that Roskomnadzor sent the administration of the social network Discord a demand to remove 947 prohibited materials. Roskomnadzor noted that the messenger received a fine of 6 million rubles for failing to remove images with child pornography.
On September 30, Moscow's Tagansky Court fined Discord 3.5 million rubles for failing to remove prohibited information under Part 2 of Article 13.50 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ("Failure to fulfill obligations by the owner of a social network"). The sanctions under the article provide for a fine of up to 4 million rubles.
Since March 2024, the company has been included in the Register of Social Networks, which obliges it to independently find and block prohibited content.
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Deputy Nemkin: Discord has become a convenient platform for criminals
The Discord messenger, blocked in Russia at the request of Roskomnadzor, has become a convenient platform for criminals, Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, told Regnum News Agency.
"Instead of a space for harmless conversations about games, Discord has become a convenient platform for criminals. First of all, thanks to anonymity - no one requires new users to confirm any information about themselves. And as we know, anonymity always goes hand in hand with crime," the deputy said.
The presence of a huge number of children on the platform is of great interest to criminals. Among them may be recruiters of drug dealers and representatives of the Ukrainian special services, who often persuade children to commit illegal acts, Nemkin believes.
"And this is a very serious threat, given the fact that today Ukrainian special services are actively attacking our children on social networks to recruit them and force them to commit illegal acts. Just recently, nine teenagers were detained who were preparing attacks under the influence of Ukrainian curators via Discord. Also detained were 39 radicals aged 14 to 35, who, on instructions from Kiev, through this platform incited teenagers to violence against representatives of state bodies, classmates and teachers," the deputy said.
He recalled that Roskomnadzor recently demanded that the platform administration remove 947 illegal materials.
“Including child pornography, calls for extremism, involving minors in committing illegal acts, calls for suicide, propaganda of LGBT (an extremist movement whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation), pro-drug content – practically the entire spectrum of information banned in Russia,” Nemkin noted.
Director of the Association of Professional Users of Social Networks and Messengers Vladimir Zykov recalled a high-profile case of the platform being used by terrorists.
"There is a well-known case when ISIS (a terrorist organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation) communicated and discussed their internal affairs via Discord. Various destructive organizations also recruit people into their ranks via Discord," Zykov told Regnum News Agency.
The expert noted that the service still refuses to remove a huge amount of prohibited content that contradicts the rules of the platform itself.
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