TikTok Stops Livestreaming in Russia Over ‘Fake News’ Law

TikTok announced Sunday (March 6) it won’t allow livestreaming in Russia because of the country’s “fake news” law, intended to silence dissent and cut down on information on the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

The decision comes as Russia’s parliament passed laws that would give prison terms for people charged with spreading what the Kremlin deems false information about the military or calling for sanctions against Russia.

TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance in China, surpassed a billion users in 2021.

“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 company announced in a series of tweets.

The report also notes that the Russian government recently blocked access to Meta’s Facebook as part of its information crackdown.

In the wake of that announcement, Meta said it planned to pause all advertising in the nation, and said it wouldn’t sell ads to Russian businesses.

Russia has been cracking down on social media, including slowing down Twitter and YouTube in a bid to make them more difficult to use.

Read more: Google, Meta Step Up Efforts To Combat Russia’s Misinformation Campaign

PYMNTS wrote recently that many companies and the public sector were also looking for ways to combat Russian misinformation surrounding the war, in addition to the economic sanctions.

The report notes that Russia justified its banning of Facebook by claiming Facebook had been engaging in “unlawful censorship.” Russia said Meta should “stop the independent fact-checking and labelling” of four Russian outlets, which Meta refused to do.

PYMNTS writes that the social media platforms’ role in controlling misinformation might be more important now, especially as the European Commission banned Russian state TV access for EU citizens.

The companies have faced criticism because they let Russian propaganda spread on their platforms for “many days” in the beginning of the crisis.