Russia has banned Discord throughout the country and it immediately caused a jump in crash reports for another popular voice chat program.
Since its launch in 2015, Discord has become the go-to place for all things voice and text chat. It’s amassed over 200M monthly active users and has over 28M servers made by people from around the world.
On October 8, 2024, Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, revealed that it had banned the California-based messaging app for violating Russian Law.
Reuters reported that Discord was ordered to delete almost 1,000 items that Russia deemed illegal and fined the company for failing to remove banned content.
The news quickly made its way around social media, with many of those affected using X to share their thoughts.
“Well this is it, Discord is now banned in Russia. Now I have to use workarounds, that will most likely won’t let me use audiochats properly. This sucks, this is the most fun and engaging platform for the community and now it’s taken away from RU’s audience,” said a Twitch streamer.
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Well this is it, discord is now banned in Russia.Now i have to use workarounds, that will most likely won't let me use audiochats propperly.This sucks, this is the most fun and engaging platform for community and now it's taken away from RU audience.
— Walter♠️ 【TSUKI LIVE GEN2】 (@WalterKarloff) October 8, 2024
Many mentioned that it was Teamspeak’s time to shine but quickly noticed that crash reports of the legacy voice chat app skyrocketed on Down Detector.
“Teamspeak, your time has come. Okay… never mind,” commented one user.
discord was blocked in Russia@teamspeakyour time has comeupd:ok… never mind pic.twitter.com/XvjcNSrc4e
— 1vs9 (@1vs95) October 8, 2024
Discord is far from the first app or platform to be banned by an entire country. TikTok, for example, was banned in India back in 2020 and its future in the United States is unknown.
Brazil banned access to Elon Musk’s X back in September, prompting many residents to consider using a VPN to access the microblogging platform.
The country’s Supreme Court, however, quickly revealed a fine of up to $8,874 per day for each person using a VPN to access the popular social media app.