Russia Considers TikTok Ban... "Expecting Increase in Use of Domestic Platforms"

"70% of Russian TikTok Subscribers Still Active"
"Many Watch Videos Habitually"

Russian media outlet TASS reported on the 16th (local time) that Russia is considering blocking the Chinese video-sharing social networking service (SNS) TikTok.

According to the report, the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) decided to review the request from the "SNS and Messenger Professional Users Association" to fully block TikTok by the 8th of next month.

The association, which consists of SNS users with over 100,000 subscribers, expects that blocking TikTok will increase the number of Russian SNS users.

The association pointed out that "70% of Russian TikTok subscribers still use TikTok" and that "users habitually watch videos without paying much attention to how old the videos are." They added, "If TikTok is blocked, the number of users on Russian video platforms such as VK Video, Yappy, and Zen could increase up to 30 million, and professional SNS users will be able to secure more subscribers on domestic platforms, creating more opportunities for monetization."

TikTok has blocked new video postings from Russian users since March 2022, following the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. Additionally, Russian users cannot view posts from foreign users. These restrictions were implemented after Russia introduced laws banning the spread of fake news related to the Russian military and penalizing violations. Therefore, current Russian TikTok users can only view videos posted over two years ago, but they are still able to leave comments.