Russian authorities ordered removal of 4,333 pieces of content from Yandex streaming service in first nine months of 2023

The Russian streaming platform Yandex.Music deleted 4,333 pieces of content in response to demands from government agencies in the first nine months of 2023, the outlet RBC reported on Wednesday, citing a transparency report from the company.

According to a press statement from Yandex.Music, the deleted content included songs, music videos, podcast episodes, and album covers. The orders to remove materials came from Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor.

The most frequent reasons given by the authorities for the removal orders were that the materials in question contained “disinformation” about the Russian military, LGBT “propaganda,” or information about suicide.

Yandex.Music contains a total of about 76 million musical tracks, according to the company’s report.