Russia has blocked the usage of Discord due to reasons related to non-compliance with communication laws that aim to prevent terrorism and drug trafficking. The blocking of foreign social channels like Facebook and Twitter by Russia since the early days of the conflict with Ukraine in early 2022 may seem surprising that Discord is only being blocked now, almost 3 years later.
However, the Washington Post reports that this recent Discord block has impacted the Russian military itself. This is because soldiers in the Russian army communicate through Discord as it is a secure messaging platform that is encrypted and has not been blocked within the country. Despite Russia’s promise to create its own chat app, there has been no development thus far.
The blocking of Discord by Russia follows suit with the blocking in Turkey, as confirmed by Discord’s official statement.
Source: Russian News Agency, Washington Post, TechCrunch
TLDR: Russia blocks Discord citing legal compliance issues; impacts military as soldiers use Discord for secure communication; follows Turkey in banning Discord.
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