“Due to conditions on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia,” a company spokesperson told CNN.
“In light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend live broadcasts and new content on our video service while the security implications of this law are reviewed,” the company wrote on Twitter.
It added that Russian users will still be able to use TikTok’s in-app messaging service.
The law, passed by the Russian parliament on Friday, punishes anyone who denigrates the Russian armed forces or calls for sanctions against the country. State media agencies have reported that violators of the law could face up to 15 years in prison or a fine of 1.5 million rubles ($14,085).
TikTok said last week that it is pursuing an expedited policy to help users identify videos uploaded by state-controlled media accounts. She added that the platform will start categorizing such content in the coming days.
– CNN’s Brian Stelter and Brian Fong contributed to this report.
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