TikTok has banned all livestreaming and content creation in Russia because of President Vladimir Putin’s newly enacted law that criminalizes anything he deems to be “fake news” as Russia continues its violent invasion of Ukraine.
“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,” the popular social media company said in a statement.
TikTok said people use the platform as an “outlet for creativity and entertainment that can provide a source of relief and human connection during a time of war,” but emphasized that it needed to prioritize user and employee safety. The company said it will continue to “evaluate the evolving circumstances in Russia to determine when we might fully resume our services with safety as our top priority.”
The app’s messaging feature will not be affected for users based in Russia, according to the statement.
In response to the conflict in Ukraine, TikTok also recently announced that it would apply labels to identify content published by state-controlled media accounts “to bring viewers context to evaluate the content they consume on our platform.”
Putin and the Russian parliament passed a law on Friday that would punish citizens with up to 15 years in prison if they are found to be “spreading intentionally fake news about the military” and its conflict with Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Russia’s new measure makes it a criminal offense to call Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a “war” instead of the Kremlin’s preferred description of “special military operation,” according to The New York Times.
Several international news organizations, including CNN, BBC, ABC News, and Germany’s ARD and ZDF, have suspend operations in Russia because of the new law.
Other major social media platforms have placed their own restrictions and bans in order to block Russia from spreading misinformation. YouTube and Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, banned the accounts of Russian news outlets RT and Sputnik last week.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a tech company based in China. China also strictly monitors the media that circulates within its borders and has close ties to Russia.