Russia is banning chat platform Discord, the Washington Post reports. The app joins platforms like Facebook and X, which have also been blocked in the country since the start of its war with Ukraine.
The twist is that the Russian military relies on Discord to coordinate communications, since the military doesn’t have its own platforms in place to support secure messaging.
Russia’s internet regulator reportedly accused the platform of posting extremist content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Turkey followed suit, blocking the app after it refused to share user data with the government.
On its status website, Discord said, “We are aware of reports of Discord being unreachable in Russia and Turkey. Our team is investigating these reports at this time.”
TechCrunch has reached out to Discord for comment.