Following reports of disruptions to the work of the Discord messenger in the Russian Federation, it became known that Roskomnadzor has blocked the platform for infringing the requirements of Russian legislation.
"Access to the Discord messenger is restricted due to 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, recruitment of citizens to carry them out, sale of drugs, in connection with the publication of illegal information”, the press service of TASS reported.
At the end of September, Roskomnadzor found new violations of Russian law by Discord, after which there were internal reports of a possible impending blocking of the messenger. The gaming industry has also begun to discuss the risks of service delays.
Roskomnadzor asked the Discord administration to remove 947 illegal materials. Then Roskomnadzor said that the Discord messenger, originally created for communication in online games, is actively used by criminals. At the same time, the administration of the messenger is not active in removing illegal content, and some pages with prohibited materials continue to remain in the public domain.
The messenger has already been fined in Russia for not deleting illegal information. In particular, in July 2023 the court imposed an administrative fine on Discord in the amount of 6 million rubles (€56,000) for not removing prohibited content. And at the end of September, he was fined another 3.5 million rubles (33,000 euros) and again in connection with ignoring Roskomnadzor's request to remove information prohibited in the Russian Federation.
According to experts, Discord has between 29 million and 40 million registered users in Russia. Although the messenger is particularly popular among gamers, it is used by companies of various profiles as a tool for communication and collaboration. A little later it became known that Turkey also took a similar step to block the service.