Russia’s censor obliges Telegram and LiveJournal to block prohibited content

Russia’s censorship agency (Roskomnadzor or RKN) has added the messaging app Telegram and the blogging platform LiveJournal to its registry of social networks. By law, these two platforms are now required to moderate and block content prohibited in Russia.

RKN launched its registry of social networks in September 2021, adding eight platforms to the list: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Likee (a video creation and sharing app), VKontakte, and Odnoklassniki.

The federal law stipulating the creation of a registry of social networks was adopted in late 2020. It came into force in February 2021.

According to the legislation, social networks with more than 500,000 daily users from Russia fall under a dedicated registry maintained by Roskomnadzor. The owners of sites included in the registry are obliged to moderate and block content prohibited in Russia. That said, the law does not yet envisage liability for non-compliance.

• A number of social networks are also included in Russia’s registry of “organizers of information dissemination.” At the request of the FSB and other security agencies, websites included in this registry are obliged to hand over users’ correspondence, files, audio messages, and payment data.