MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Monday it would extend a punitive Twitter slowdown until May 15, although it acknowledged that the U.S. social media company has accelerated the exclusion of what Moscow calls banned content.
Moscow has traditionally taken a more indirect role in policing the Internet than neighboring China. But as friction escalated this year with the arrest and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, it signaled a tougher line.
Since March, Russia has been blocking Twitter’s speed by not removing content it considers illegal and has threatened to block it entirely. Photos and videos take longer to upload for some users.
However, in a statement on Monday, state media Roskomnadzor said that Twitter held talks with Russian authorities on April 1, resulting in an agreement to give more time and the recognition that the banned content is being deleted more quickly.
Twitter confirmed negotiations with Russia.
“It was a productive discussion about how we can both work to ensure that reports of such illegal content are dealt with quickly,” the statement said.
Roskomnadzor said that, on average, Twitter was removing illegal content 81 hours after receiving a request. This is still much longer than the 24 hours required by law.
Russian officials have accused Twitter and others this year of not deleting posts that Moscow has said illegally asking children to participate in protests against the Kremlin.
Roskomnadzor says he wants Twitter to exclude content that contains child pornography, information about drug abuse or calls for minors to commit suicide.
Twitter denies allowing its platform to be used to promote illegal behavior, says it has a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual exploitation and prohibits the promotion of suicide or self-harm.
After Russia announced the move to decrease its traffic, Twitter said it was concerned about the impact on freedom of expression.
Russia tried, but failed to block the popular Telegram messaging app in 2018.
Roskomnadzor did not say how this is slowing Twitter down, but advocates for internet freedom say it likely involves traffic policing and deep packet inspection (DPI), a form of data processing that can block and redirect certain internet traffic. .
Leonid Evdokimov, a technical expert at Roskomsvoboda, a group that monitors Internet freedom in Russia, said the authorities seemed more technically capable and that the threat to block Twitter was probably more realistic.
Major social media companies are involved in an increasing number of disputes not only in Russia, but around the world, as governments seek to contain their power.
Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Maxim Rodionov, Alexander Marrow; Editing by Alison Williams, Andrew Cawthorne and Barbara Lewis