Russia Shuts Down Discord, Instrument of Military Communication

In Russia, the Discord platform, which was also actively used by the Russian military, was blocked for “violation of the law.”

The Russian TASS news agency reported that the Russian federal service Roskomandzor (Russia’s internet and media regulator) sent a request to the Discord administration to remove 947 “illegal materials.”

Those materials allegedly contained child pornography, calls for extremism, involvement of minors in illegal activities, calls for suicide, LGBT materials, and drug-related content.

Over the past two months, Discord users in Russia have reported issues with access.

Discord, a platform that supports cross-platform video calls, is popular among IT professionals, gamers, and crypto projects’ administrators.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian and Russian military have been actively using the Discord platform.

The invaders used Discord for conferences, correspondence, and to watch videos from drones and manage groups during combat operations.

Ukrainian commanders also use the Discord platform to manage their troops.

It is known that in 2023, Discord was used for communication during exercises involving the Territorial Defense Forces and the 26th Naval River Ships Division.

The Discord platform is also used by Ukrainian command posts during the fighting in Donbas.

The soldiers use Discord chats to create voice channels to quickly connect with the entire combat group at different positions.

As previously reported, leaked documents from the Pentagon in 2023 that allegedly demonstrated Ukrainian plans and the number of Ukrainian military equipment, were first published on Discord servers.