MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday that it was slowing down Twitter in retaliation for its alleged failure to remove banned content, and threatened a total blockade if the U.S. platform did not comply with its exclusion requirements.
The move, which heightens a growing stalemate between Moscow and U.S. social media companies, comes weeks after Russian officials accused Twitter and others of not deleting posts he claimed to illegally ask children to participate in anti-Kremlin protests.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia has traditionally taken a more indirect role in policing the Internet than neighboring China. But as domestic political tensions have increased this year over the arrest and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny – who has sparked protests across the country – this has signaled a tougher line.
Roskomnadzor, the state communications regulator, said in a statement that as of Wednesday there were more than 3,000 posts with illegal content on Twitter, which he accused of ignoring his exclusion requests for years.
Twitter was already under pressure in Russia after being cited as one of five social media platforms sued for allegedly not deleting posts urging children to participate in illegal protests, the Interfax news agency said, citing a Moscow court Tuesday. market.
The regulator did not mention content related to opposition protests in Wednesday’s statement, but did refer to what he said was illegal content on Twitter containing child pornography, information on drug use and calls for minors to commit suicide.
“The slowdown will be applied to 100% of mobile devices and 50% of non-mobile devices,” said the regulator.
“If (Twitter) continues to ignore the requirements of the law, enforcement measures will continue … (until the blockade),” said the regulator.
The change would affect video and photo content, but not the text, Interfax said, citing a regulatory official.
‘CONTROL THE INFORMATION SPACE’
The Kremlin said there is no desire to block content, but that companies must obey the law.
Some activists, however, said they believed the restrictions were linked to recent protests.
“Of course, the main reason is the increase in protest action on the streets,” said Sarkis Darbinyan, an advocate for internet freedom with the Roskomsvoboda group.
“It has been 10 years since the Arab spring of this year … they understood that the internet is a driving force. Any desire to control the Russian internet is connected to the desire to control the information space. “
Navalny’s allies say they plan new protests in the coming months.
Some government websites were unavailable to some Russian Internet users shortly after the Twitter announcement.
Telecommunications operator Rostelecom said the disruption of several government sites, including those in the Kremlin and parliament, was not caused by new restrictions imposed on Twitter, but by a malfunction of the equipment.
MORE RESISTANT INTERNET LAWS
Vadim Subbotin, a watchdog officer, said it is possible that authorities could target and slow down other internet platforms if they do not comply with the law, the Interfax news agency reported.
The Chamber of Deputies in December supported new heavy fines on platforms that do not erase banned content and other legislation that would allow them to be restricted if they “discriminated” against Russian media.
Moscow has gradually introduced stricter Internet laws in recent years, requiring search engines to exclude some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services and platforms to store user data on servers in Russia.
Some of these measures have raised fears of Chinese-style restrictions on the Internet, but have been only partially successful.
Russia tried to ban Telegram’s messaging service in 2018, for example, but it proved to be technically unable to block the app and, last year, publicly lifted the ban.
Additional reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Alex Richardson