MOSCOW – The Russian government said on Wednesday it was slowing access to Twitter, accusing the social network of failing to remove illegal content and signaling that the Kremlin is stepping up its offensive against American internet companies that have long provided a haven for the Internet. freedom of expression.
Shortly after the announcement, Twitter was still accessible in the country, but dozens of Russian government websites were offline for about an hour, including the Kremlin website, Parliament, various ministries and law enforcement organizations. Russian officials blamed an equipment failure and said the fall was unrelated to the move against Twitter.
US government officials said over the weekend that they plan to retaliate against Russia for a widespread hacker attack last year that exploited vulnerabilities in government and corporate computer systems in the United States.
Authorities said the retaliation was planned in the coming weeks, but it was not clear on Wednesday whether the disruption to government websites was a sign of the latest wave of this cyber conflict or an unrelated flaw in the Russian internet.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media said in a statement that the problem with government websites arose from an equipment failure at a state-owned telephone company and Internet service provider, Rostelkom, and that it was unrelated to the separate step taken by regulators to decrease traffic on Twitter.
The Russian agency made the announcement in a Twitter post.
The Russian telecommunications regulator said it is slowing Twitter loading speed for Internet users in Russia, although it is not immediately clear how noticeable the change would be. The regulator, Roskomnadzor, whose website also went offline on Wednesday after announcing the move against Twitter, accused the American company of failing for years to remove posts about the use of illegal drugs or child pornography or messages “pushing minors into suicide. ”.
“In order to protect Russian citizens and compel the Internet service to follow the law in the territory of the Russian Federation, centralized reactive measures have been taken against Twitter since March 10, 2021 – specifically, the initial strangulation of Internet speeds. service, in accordance with the regulations, ”said the regulator in a statement.
“If the Twitter internet service continues to ignore the requirements of the law, measures against it will continue to comply with the regulation, up to and including its blockade,” he added.
Twitter did not immediately comment.
The social network has a relatively small reach in Russia, but the crackdown can have far-reaching significance. Even as President Vladimir V. Putin reversed democratic freedoms and stifled independent media, he allowed the Internet to remain essentially free.
Twitter – and to a much greater extent, Facebook’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube – gave Russians ways to speak, report and organize themselves openly, although the Kremlin controls television waves.
These social networks, along with China’s TikTok, played a central role in the anti-Kremlin protests that accompanied opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny’s return and arrest this year. Navalny has about 2.5 million followers on Twitter, and his investigation published in January in an alleged secret palace of Putin has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.
Russian officials say Silicon Valley companies discriminate against Russians by blocking some pro-Kremlin accounts while delivering a megaphone to Kremlin critics. They also said that social media refused to remove content that attracts children to unauthorized protests in support of Navalny.
In the past few weeks, the Kremlin has led an increasingly intense raid criticizing American internet companies, portraying them as corrupting foreign forces.
“Online, we find child pornography and child prostitution, with the sale and distribution of drugs, targeting children and teenagers,” Putin said this month.
The internet, Putin said, must respect “the moral laws of the society in which we live – otherwise this society will be destroyed from the inside”.
Twitter has a small user base in Russia, although it is popular with journalists, politicians and opposition activists. A report last year estimated that the service had 690,000 active users in Russia, meaning that any public reaction to the change is likely to be much less than if the Kremlin imposed similar limits on Instagram or YouTube.
Russia, with a population of 144 million, is also an important market for US internet companies and the threat of closure provides some economic leverage for the Russian government to respond to the growing cyber conflict with the United States. American officials said they intended to retaliate against the invasion of Russia at a Texas-based company, SolarWinds, which provides software for governments and corporate customers.
Recent history may also suggest another explanation for the failure of Russian government websites on Wednesday: cheating by a heavy-handed regulator.
In 2018, Roskomnadzor, while trying to close the Telegram messaging app, inadvertently blocked the service for thousands of other sites in Russia. By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, several Russian government websites, including those belonging to the Kremlin and Parliament, were back online.