Roskomnadzor penalizes TikTok, Telegram, and others for failing to remove banned content

Russia's federal censor, Roskomnadzor, announced it was taking “coercive measures” against TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord, and Pinterest on Friday. Search engines will now be required to inform users that the companies stand in violation of Russian law.

According to the agency, the companies have violated Russian law by failing, among other things, to remove prohibited information from their services. Roskomnadzor didn’t specify the nature of the information the companies failed to take down.

“The information measures that have been taken will remain in effect until the foreign companies’ violations of Russian law are completely eliminated,” read a statement from Roskomnadzor.

In July, Roskomnadzor began requiring Russian search engines to inform users that Wikipedia is breaking Russian law after the site’s owners refused to delete certain articles about the war in Ukraine. The Russian censor has taken similar measures against Google and Twitch.

Earlier this week, Telegram was fined 11 million rubles ($185,000) for refusing to delete information about the war as well as “calls to extremism.”