Court orders Russia’s federal censor to block Play Market and App Store games that insult the cops

A court in Kirov has ordered the Russian government to block several games hosted on the Google Play Market and Apple App Store, ruling that they insult law-enforcement agencies, incite players to commit crimes, and “propagate criminal traditions.” Once the ruling takes effect, Russia’s federal censor, Roskomnadzor, will get its marching orders.

The lawsuit was brought by the district prosecutor’s office, which argued that the mobile games draw young people to criminal activity, and warp the “physical, intellectual, psychological, spiritual, and moral development of children.”

Denis Sukhomlin, spokesman for the Kirov district attorney’s office, told the website 7x7 that the games “propagate criminal themes.” “There are games, for example, where you have to build your own business as the head of a prison, or go get transferred from general population to maximum security,” he said, without identifying the game. Sukhomlin clarified that his office doesn’t intend to prosecute all instances of criminal slang and culture, just “specific games that propagate insults and incitement to violence against law-enforcement agencies.”