MOSCOW: Russia's telecoms watchdog on Oct 8 announced that it was banning social media platform Discord for violating the country's laws, signalling the latest move by authorities tightening control over the Internet.

Access to Discord was being "restricted due to the violation of requirements of Russian legislation" pertaining to "preventing the use of messaging for terrorist and extremist purposes", telecoms 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.

US-based Discord was fined 6mil rubles (US$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 1 order to remove nearly 1,000 items of content, Roskomnadzor said, claiming the site is "actively used by criminals".

Since the launch of 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.

 – AFP