TikTok said on Sunday it would suspend live streaming and uploading of new content from Russia, making it the latest tech company to pull out of the country.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said it was taking steps to review Russia’s new law on “fake news.” The law appears to target media outlets that are not following the Kremlin’s line on the invasion of Ukraine.
“Our top priority is the safety of our employees and our users, and in light of the new Russian ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend live streaming and new content for our video service in Russia while we fully understand the security implications. of this law,” TikTok said in a statement.
Last week, TikTok joined Meta, Twitter and YouTube to ban Russian state-sponsored media in the European Union and label state-sponsored media in the rest of the world. The tech platforms have been caught in the midst of the invasion information war, with Ukrainian leaders and US and European officials calling on them to shut down Russia while Russia pressures the companies to censor their content.
Millions of people have turned to TikTok for live updates and video clips of the fighting in Ukraine. The company has faced a deluge of videos, some of which claim to show the action on the spot, but are unverified. That has raised concerns that TikTok is spreading misinformation about the invasion.
According to a review by The New York Times, videos with the hashtag #Ukrainewar have been viewed nearly 500 million times on TikTok, with some of the most popular videos gaining nearly a million likes. In contrast, the hashtag #Ukrainewar on Instagram had 125,000 posts and the most popular videos were viewed tens of thousands of times.
TikTok last week said it had spent more resources monitoring misleading content about the war.
Turning off live streaming and new uploads from Russia is tricky, as it can stop ordinary Russians from spreading independent information. Some Russian journalists and censorship experts have warned that there would be negative consequences if tech platforms were blocked in Russia.
