Spotify shutters Russia office, pulls Kremlin media from platform

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News

Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) has shut down its Russia office "indefinitely" and removed all content from Kremlin-backed RT and Sputnik from its platform, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.

It's not stopping its general service to Russia, however, telling Variety it's "critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information."

The company says it's providing individual support to its regional employees, as well as its global Ukrainian employees, and is matching employee donations for humanitarian aid two-to-one.

RT and Sputnik also ran into trouble with Google (GOOG, GOOGL), which blocked mobile apps connected to the state media entities from its Play app store. Google had previously moved to remove the publishers from its news features. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has ensured that RT News and Sputnik News were no longer able to be downloaded from its App Store outside Russia.

Spotify was one of only a few companies complying with a new Russian law requiring a local office (along with Apple and Rakuten's Viber) - while others (including Google, Meta Platforms, Twitter, TikTok, Zoom, Likee, Discord, Twitch, Telegram and Pinterest) ignored the requirement.

Comments

[TruffelPig]

Keeps Russia lover Joe Rogan..........he is being transmitted in Russia by official media.

[upsidedowninoil]

Spotify service has just gone down in a major outage!

[combatcorpsmanVN]

Joseph Stalin's mutant off-spring Putin has now reached the pinnacle of a deviant with absolutely no mercy, compassion, empathy, or just common decency continues to murder innocent people caught in a situation where these people have done no harm to Russia and are completely vulnerable to the cruelty being inflicted on them by a MONSTER that would kill his mother if the circumstances appeared to be a benefit to him.

I'm vehemently opposed to War but I wouldn't be upset to see Russia take the punishment that Putin is inflicting on the defenseless women and children in Ukraine.

The world will be better off if Putin suffers a painful death, Imo.

[Bbone]

This is the right decision.

[jeffk100]

@Bbone how is this the right decision? They play music and podcasts FROM THE WEST. Wouldnt we much rather russian peoples hear western news and opinions? In ww2 and thereafter should radio free europe have shut down too in protest to stalin? Just stupid! We want western propaganda to get there. Virtue signaling gone stupid…

[Pianodude]

I hate this awful invasion, but I think it’s a bad idea to block music. Music is a conduit for good.

[zoeshamu]

@Pianodude Yeah, but Spotify does not only do music now. It also does podcats .. so its become like a Fox look-alike spewing crap from idiots. If they stuck to music, would have been fine. Now, any digital media should be subject to the same rules, right? Like opening a stand for KKK ...

[Gunne]

@Pianodude
Agreed, otherwise the Russian kids would have to listen to friggin Balalaika.

But if they keep pushing...

[gutcheck]

russian teens will revolt if they are blocked all access to eilish

[V_uniqueacc]

@gutcheck they aren’t

[Gunne]

@V_uniqueacc
We've seen a lot of Russian youngsters being taken in custody because they have been protesting, right?

Apparently, the Kremlin has now an 8 year sentence for the simple act of protesting, can you imagine?

More reports of Russians wanting to flee Russia.

Russia is becoming completely cut off to any prestigious sport event.

Russia is becoming completely cut off to anything in the West, really.

It is becoming a paria state.

Is that the great empire Putin is dreaming of?
And let's make it clear. It is his dream, and no more than that.

And yes, Lavrov, Europeans will decide how they live, not Russia.
Period.

The only way out for the Kremlin is an accord with pres. Zelensky.

[V_uniqueacc]

@Gunne my point was simply that spotify does not block the russian youth accessing their services

[combatcorpsmanVN]

Putin has no idea what's confronting Russia as a country with an economy. The entire world sees that Russia, with Putin in control, is a cruel, malicious, and utterly sick society. Murdering civilians after attacking a country with many Russian citizens and a complete lack of aggression toward any other country shows how ruthless Putin is in complete devastation to cities and human life therein.

No amount of Russian propaganda is going to work to give Putin a pass after the carnage he's brought to people in Ukraine.

[eurdone88]

@combatcorpsmanVN
Well, it helps that Russian Propaganda is no longer being accepted.

The alarming part is they were airing Russian propaganda for years, poisoning Western democracies for profit.

Shame on any company that served at the feet of The Kremlin, for any amount of time.

[P M D]

Russia was behind a lot of the antivax propaganda and convoy riots as well. The "endthemandate" hashtag basically disappeared the day Russia disconnected from Twitter, and the American convoys just went away.

[Gunne]

@combatcorpsmanVN
If he keeps at it in Ukraine, Putin will be irrelevant.

Russian logistical problems are immense, their soldiers are hungry, frozen, demoralized, some parts are stranded, running out of oil.

Russian TV showed a bunch of old Russian reservists.
That is not out of luxury.

The Kremlin calls the Western world the kingdom of liars.
Sure, not everyone is always truthful, not everything is perfect.

But the Kremlin creates a reality that does not exist.

www.cnbc.com/...

www.bloomberg.com/...

You cannot win, the truth arrives even in Russia, through the internet.

There is no "saving" of Ukrainians from Nazis, it's an invasion of another sovereign country. And the Kremlin is committing war crimes.

Go home, nobody wants you in Ukraine.
And the whole world will continue to support with supplies, weapons, etc.
The Western world will never live under your regime.

Slava Ukraini.

[User 52337389]

I am officially cancelling the export of memes to Russia. There, I contributed to the war effort! 😏

[zoeshamu]

Don't understand this ... Spotify removes Russian disinformation news media but not Rogan? Is it because Spotify paid $200 million to Rogan for crap? Keep the same standard ... drop Rogan as well. Stupido ...

[Benjamin Graham Cracker]

@zoeshamu Did Rogan start a war, or did I miss that?

[Richer Than You]

@zoeshamu Spotify or any other company, couldn’t care less the war. It’s just marketing. They do what most people want to see. That’s all.

[Felixjtyau]

@Benjamin Graham Cracker Zoe in case you missed the nuance (and your gut reaction is that Joe is just a bad bad boy in your eyes and is arguably just as bad), it’s an apples to oranges comparison.

[eurdone88]

Why were all these media companies spewing Russian propaganda in the first place?

Oh yeah, they have zero ethics! It shouldn't take an invasion to tell you not to do the Kremlin's work for them!

[Plaubel]

Cancelling Russia has become the new virtue signal of the West. Businesses, groups, politicians and individuals are standing on soapboxes right now, proclaiming to God and all who can hear how evil, vile, dirty and disgusting this country is. The louder you shout it, the more virtuous you are! Oh the joy once again to be better, more virtuous than others.

When America does the same thing,….Crickets.

[Pci2]

@Plaubel So true. Even Joseph Goebbels would be delighted.

[User 3434471]

@Pci2 Joseph Goebbels would be a valued member of the Putin regime if he were alive today. He's just like Putin and his followers

[Pci2]

@donfdraper He would enjoy the total escalation on either side

[userwcSX]

Good for Spotify. Russia should stop attacking a sovereign nation unprovoked and murdering thousands of civilians. Nobody should do business with them.

[Costco_Pizza]

@userwcSX Yes, very good move, but Rogan needs to go next. We need to pressure Spotify to remove Rogan.

[userwcSX]

@Costco_Pizza Unimportant in comparison. I don't care. People can decide not to listen to Rogan, but Ukrainian's cannot decide not to get bombed.

[User 48109984]

@Costco_Pizza
Why? Rogan hurt your feelings? 😰

[Datsyuk13]

They didn’t want to lose Neil Young again

[financeminister]

lol...RT was where former CNN and MSNBC employees went.... .and died.

[BIZUN1973]

Where is CNN and MSDNC going to get their news if Google shuts down RT and Sputnik News?

[MWinMD]

@Bavossler What are you talking about? RT and Sputnik were well-known conduits of Russian propaganda to American right wing media over recent years. Well documented in the Mueller Report as well as the GOP Senate report on the 2016 election meddling.

Is this more of the old "confuse people by accusing your opponent of exactly what you're doing" that the Right always engages in?

[Horn Hi Aces]

@MWinMD ...I think that Trump cult members are frantically making stuff up. After Russian media was replaying Trump, Mike Pompeo, Tucker Carlson, and other right wing "celebrities" praising Putin and attacking the United States, they're grasping at straws.

[Deverix]

@MWinMD How did that Mueller report work out for you? How you think the Durham investigation is working out for Mrs. Clinton? See, you had it exactly backwards. It's the Democrats that follow the teachings of Saul Alinsky. But you knew that already - you're engaging in the strategy yourself here. Nice try, tho.

[Jpokergman]

Digital Media only follows the herd….. Strong sign Putin’s in trouble.

[PanicFirst]

["critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information."]

So global propaganda instead of Russian propaganda...

[Whiteknightcaesar]

Well done. At my company we terminated the employment of Russian managers and staff….will be replacing them with local Singaporean staff

[Jpokergman]

@Whiteknightcaesar What’s the diff

[Legitimate]

@Whiteknightcaesar so it’s the civilians fault? Dumb decisions, your company is to work for me

[Et20]

cancel culture going nuts