INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia's telecoms watchdog on Tuesday announced that it was banning the social media platform Discord for violating the country's laws,
signaling the latest move by authorities to tighten control over the internet.Access to Discord was being "restricted due to the violation
watchdog Roskomnadzor said in a statement.Russia has been ordering foreign platforms to remove content deemed "illegal" for several years,
and imposing fines for failure to comply with its injunctions.U.S.-based Discord was fined 6 million rubles ($62,000) by a Moscow court in
July 2023 for failing to remove "illegal" content, a decision which Roskomnadzor said the company ignored.Although Discord is popular among
young people, it is used far less than Telegram by the general public in Russia.Discord failed to comply with an Oct
its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has tightened its grip on the digital sector, including bans on a number of Western
websites and social networks.
