Spotify has announced that it is withdrawing from Russia due to a new law that provides jail time for anyone who spreads “fake news” about the country’s armed forces.
The company, which provides music streaming services over the internet, stated that they decided to withdraw due to security concerns regarding their employees and “possibly listeners”. The company also closed its office in Moscow recently.
However, after the company closed the office, it stated that it would continue its activities in order to provide “independent news” to the country.
“Unfortunately, the recently enacted law further restricts access to information, undermines freedom of expression, and criminalizing certain news puts Spotify employees and possibly our listeners at risk,” the company said in a written statement.
According to the new rules, if the media outlets’ publications about Russia’s occupation in Ukraine are seen as “fake news”, it can lead to long prison sentences.
Following the arrangement, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and CNN are among the media outlets that announced they would stop broadcasting from Russia.
The TikTok application has also stopped broadcasting live and adding new content from the platform.
The BBC also stopped reporting from Russia, but then resumed. Access to the BBC’s news sites was restricted in Russia, and the Kremlin stopped broadcasting the BBC World News channel.
Spotify, which started its operations in Russia in 2020, is generally known as a music listening platform. However, the company has started to include podcasts as well.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the company was also unable to sell paid subscriptions due to the embaros.
Hundreds of global companies, including BP, McDonalds and Netflix, either withdrew from Russia or restricted their activities after the invasion.