TikTok said Russian users of its popular social media app
would no longer be able to post new videos or livestreams and they also
wouldn’t be able to see videos shared from elsewhere in the world.
Netflix said it was suspending its service in Russia but didn't
provide additional details.
The actions are likely to further isolate the country and
its people after a growing number of multinational businesses have cut off
Russia from vital financial services, technology and a variety of consumer
products in response to Western economic sanctions and global outrage over the
invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. credit card companies Visa, Mastercard and American
Express all said over the weekend they would cut service in Russia. South
Korea's Samsung Electronics, a major supplier of both smartphones and computer
chips, said it would halt product shipments to the country, joining other big
tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Intel and Dell.
But providers of internet-based services and apps had been
mostly reluctant to take actions that could deprive Russian citizens of social
media services and other sources of information.
That changed Friday when Russian President Vladimir Putin
intensified a crackdown on media outlets and individuals who fail to hew to the
Kremlin line on the war, blocking Facebook and Twitter and signing into law a
bill that criminalizes the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be
“fake” reports.
“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,” TikTok said Sunday in a statement
on Twitter. “Our in-app messaging service will not be affected.”
TikTok spokesperson Hilary McQuaide said the TikTok app in
Russia now appears in “view-only” mode and won't let people post or see new
videos or livestreams. They can still see older videos, but not if they came
from outside the country, she said.
“The safety of employees is our top priority,” she said,
adding that the video-sharing service — part of China-based tech company
ByteDance — didn't want to put either its Russian employees or users at risk of
severe criminal penalties. Some protesters who've taken to the streets in
Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities to decry the invasion of
Ukraine have used social media platforms to broadcast their cause.
The new legislation, quickly rubber-stamped by both houses
of the Kremlin-controlled parliament and signed by Putin, imposes prison
sentences of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against
the Russian government’s narrative on the war.
Multiple news outlets have also said they would pause their
work inside Russia to evaluate the situation. Russian authorities have
repeatedly and falsely decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian
deaths in Ukraine as “fake” news. State media outlets refer to Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a war or an
invasion.
The law envisages sentences of up to three years or fines
for spreading what authorities deem to be false news about the military, but
the maximum punishment rises to 15 years for cases deemed to have led to
“severe consequences.”