Spotify is Fulling Halting Service in Russia for This Reason

Swedish audio streaming and media services provider Spotify is saying dasvidanya (or goodbye in Engish) to Russian listeners.

The company will fully halt its service in the country by April over media censorship law.

The streaming platform is the latest company to join a growing list of media platforms halting operations in Russia following a law passed by the Kremlin earlier this month that threatens to jail any person or entity spreading “fake” news for up to 15 years.

CNN, the BBC, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. have also stopped broadcasting in Russia after the law was introduced.

Spotify confirmed to Yahoo Finance that the music streaming giant made the “difficult” decision Friday to suspend its service in the country.

The company said it will have to take several operational steps to facilitate the exit but expects to have fully suspended its service by early April.

“Spotify has continued to believe that it’s critically important to try and keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information in the region,” a company spokesperson said.

“Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and criminalizing certain types of news puts the safety of Spotify’s employees and possibly even our listeners at risk.”

“Russia’s recent adoption of a punitive ‘fake war news’ law is an alarming move by the government to gag and blindfold an entire population,” United Nations human rights experts said in a statement on March 11.

“While the government claims that the purpose of the new legislation is to protect the ‘truth’ about what it euphemistically calls a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, in reality the law places Russia under a total information blackout on the war and in so doing gives an official seal of approval to disinformation and misinformation,” experts appointed by the Human Rights Council said.

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