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TikTok It said on Sunday it would suspend live streaming and new content uploaded from Russia, making it the latest technology company to withdraw from the country.
TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDanceHe said Russia took action as it reviewed the new “fake news” law. The law appears to target media outlets that do not follow the Kremlin’s line on the invasion of Ukraine.
“The safety of our employees and users is our top priority, and in light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend live streaming and new content to our video service in Russia while we review the security implications. This is the law,” TikTok said in a statement.
Last week, TikTok joined Meta, Twitter and YouTube in banning Russian state-sponsored media in the European Union and tagging state-sponsored media in the rest of the world. Technology platforms became caught in the middle of the information war Russia pressures companies to censor their content, while Ukrainian leaders and US and European officials are urging them to cut Russia down.
Millions of people have turned to TikTok for live updates and video clips of the war in Ukraine. the company had to dealing with a flood of videos, some claim to show action on the field, but it’s unconfirmed. This 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 garnered nearly 500 million views on TikTok, with some of the most popular videos getting close to a million likes. In contrast, the hashtag #Ukrainewar on Instagram had 125,000 posts and the most popular videos had tens of thousands of views.
TikTok said last week that it is dedicating more resources to watching misleading war-related content.
Turning off live streaming and new uploads from Russia is misleading as it may prevent ordinary Russians from disseminating independent information. Some Russian journalists and censorship experts warned that blocking technology platforms in Russia would have negative consequences.
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