After Russia passed the “fake news” law, TikTok suspends the live streaming and upload features. The company gave a detailed explanation in a blog post and stated in a tweet that:
“In light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend live streaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law, our in-app messaging service will not be affected.”
2/ In light of Russia's new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law. Our in-app messaging service will not be affected.
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) March 6, 2022
TikTok suspends features in Russia
The fake news law was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday. It penalizes individuals with fines or up to 15 years in prison for conveying false information about the military of Russia or publicly calling for sanctions on Russia. Russia’s assault on Ukraine has resulted in increased restrictions on social media and foreign news sources. Facebook has been blocked, access to Twitter has been limited, and BBC news sites have been banned by Russia.
Last week, Russia’s communications body Roskomnadzor criticized TikTok for removing government-sponsored material from its platform. TikTok subsequently stated that it would apply labels to some state-controlled media and that it has been making it more difficult for users to access Russian state media in accordance with similar actions taken by Facebook, and YouTube.
TikTok also noted that:
“We will continue to evaluate the evolving circumstances in Russia to determine when we might fully resume our services with safety as our top priority.”
