The independent outlet Mediazona compared the originals frame by frame with the Russian adaptations, according to its study. Of the 200 affected series, 44 hours of cuts involved LGBTQ themes and 12 hours involved politics, including mentions of Vladimir Putin, references to the war in Ukraine and inconvenient chapters of Soviet and Russian history.

The Insider, citing Mediazona's tally, reported that 7,300 fragments were removed from the 200 series. Signs of re-editing were found in 368 of the 462 titles available on the service.

Entire storylines were affected. Romantic scenes and references to the relationship between Jaime and Cersei Lannister were cut from Game of Thrones to avoid the theme of incest. In The Client Always Dies, 170 minutes were removed, 140 of them covering the relationship between David Fisher and his partner Keith Charles. In Twin Peaks, all scenes with David Duchovny, who played a drug enforcement agent and the transgender woman Denise Bryson, were cut.

Beyond LGBTQ and political content, the censors removed drugs (5 hours), incest, pedophilia and bestiality (4 hours), and "non-traditional" forms of sex (4 hours). Even a mention of Tylenol was cut from The Sopranos. According to Mediazona, an interview with Volodymyr Zelensky was removed from the documentary series Axios, and nesting dolls depicting Russian presidents were cut from Killing Eve.

Some edits are made through translation rather than editing. A source in the industry told Mediazona that Amediateka sends partner studios a guide listing forbidden topics. A homosexual character is to be called "another," same-sex couples "friends," and oral sex a "kiss." If a character grew up in a same-sex family, the translation leaves him one parent, while the second becomes an "uncle" or "aunt."

"It seems to me that when you have done about 30 such projects, you already know that gays are bad," Mediazona quoted a person working on the translations as saying.

Mediazona noted that Amediateka has been held liable for its content at least six times: four protocols for incorrect age labeling and two under the article on "propaganda of non-traditional relations."

Mediazona pointed out that not all censorship can be explained by law: Russia does not prohibit mentioning American media and companies, calling Putin by name, showing cruelty, sex between adults or programs about the history of the USSR.

Amediateka is the official Russian distributor of series from HBO, Showtime, AMC and Warner Bros. Other major streamers, including Okko and Kinopoisk, show foreign series in Amediateka's translations.

The Insider noted that the same title can be re-edited several times. Game of Thrones first had incest and LGBTQ characters removed, and later individual scenes related to suicide. The Sopranos, True Detective and Banshee were censored twice.