Swedish audio streaming and media services provider Spotify has announced that it will “fully suspend” its service in Russia, apparently indefinitely, amid the country’s continued military operation in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the company had suspended its paid subscription service in Russia. As per Variety, in a statement, the company has now said, “Spotify has continued to believe that it’s critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information in the region.”
“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. After carefully considering our options and the current circumstances, we have come to the difficult decision to fully suspend our service in Russia,” they added.
With this decision, the company has joined dozens of other music companies that have ceased operations in the country including Netflix, Sony Music, Warner Media, among several others.
Though the Russian offices of Spotify had been closed by the company earlier this month, still, it did not initially disable access to its service within Russia.
It had also restricted the discoverability of Russian state-affiliated content on the streaming audio services and removed all content from Kremlin-backed outlets RT and Sputnik from Spotify’s platform.
As per Variety, Spotify had launched its service in Russia and Ukraine in July 2020, along with 10 other European countries. (ANI)
