In recent years, the Russian authorities have been on a digital crusade based more on sovereignty than morality. Kommersant reported that the latest target is the popular messaging app Discord. It is estimated that there are between 30-40 millions users in Russia and around 4% of its traffic.
The opening salvo is already fired. Since September 20, Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, has issued five rulings on Discord. These rulings can now all be used to justify an upcoming discord ban. They love bureaucracy, no matter what you think of authoritarian regimes.
Kommersant quotes a anonymous official source who says that the ban is being considered because of violations of Russian law. These violations have not yet been detailed and are unlikely to be. They continue to say that the ban could happen "in the next few days".
Russian users also complained of periodic outages in Discord during September. Many turned to VPNs and were affected by both the mobile and web versions of the platform.
If the ban becomes a reality, Russian players and developers will be the biggest losers, as there is no obvious replacement in the country. "The problem for Russian developers is that communication with the community and technical support, including international, are implemented through Discord," Vasily Ovchinnikov said, head of Russia’s Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry.
A Moscow court fined Discord today 3.5 million roubles (about $37,675), for failing to restrict the access to information that was banned.
The Russian authorities have already begun to take action, and this possible Discord ban is just the latest in a series of tech battles that stem from the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, and in response to the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, the Putin regime is now seeking "digital autonomy" through the use of domestic tech companies and platforms.
These efforts have taken many forms, from the banning of VPNs to possible creation of a game engine. The Russian Valve was even discussed after a few glasses of vodka by the regime. As funny as this may seem, the consequences of it are far from amusing: take Ruwiki, a new self-censoring alternative to Wikipedia, which copies over vast swathes with all the politically unconvenient content silently removed. In Russia, you are edited by the wiki.
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