“TikTok is a platform for creativity and entertainment that can bring relief and human contact in times of war when people face great tragedy and isolation. However, our highest priority remains the safety of our employees and users. In light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend live streaming and new content on our video service while we assess the security implications of this law,” the app said on its Twitter account.

TikTok is most popular especially among teenagers, who according to some statistics are already using it more often than Facebook. Of course, among the users of this Chinese social network, we can also find the older generation. The principle of this online service is very simple, it is based on very short videos that are played one after another. It’s the same as if you were viewing a post on Facebook and the screen scrolled itself to more posts.

But instead of captions, they play the main video on TikTok, short footage of three to 60 seconds long. And such a short duration seems to be a recipe for success, because in the US the Chinese social network has even surpassed Snapchat and Instagram. Although short videos are the most popular, many users can easily spend several hours a day on TikTok.

Russia’s parliament on Friday approved the introduction of criminal responsibility and up to 15 years in prison for disinformation and fake news about the Russian military, for discrediting the armed forces and for calls for sanctions. The amendments incorporate into the Criminal Code a new provision on the intentional dissemination of false information about the use of armed forces to defend the interests of Russia and its citizens.

De facto, this means the media can only publish official information from the authorities. Given the current invasion of Ukraine, they can only inform about how Moscow presents the conflict – namely as a “special military operation” to liberate Ukraine. Russia’s censorship agency Roskomnadzor also blocked access to the social network Facebook on Friday and began restricting access to the Twitter network as well.

On Saturday, German stations ARD and ZDF decided to stop broadcasting from Russia due to the new law. The Spanish news agency EFE will also suspend its activities in Russia, French radio station Radio France is considering. CNN, BBC, CBC and Bloomberg have announced the withdrawal of their journalists from Russia.

A number of Western companies have suspended their activities in Russia in response to the attacks on Ukraine. On Saturday, for example, Spanish clothing giant Inditex, Italian fashion house Prada and German sportswear and footwear manufacturer Puma announced a halt to Russian activities. Austrian oil and gas company OMV has said it will avoid all investment in Russia in the future and could release a quarter of its stake in Russia’s gas giant Yuzhno-Russkoye field.

The suspension of investment in Russia was also announced today by French food group Danone. It also said that one of its two factories in Ukraine had stopped operating as a result of the Russian invasion. “We have decided to suspend all investment projects in Russia, but we are currently maintaining the production and distribution of fresh dairy products and baby food to continue to meet the basic dietary needs of the local population,” he added.