Russia slows Twitter's speed over banned content

Russian regulator says Twitter could be blocked completely if it does not comply with government demands

Russia's telecom regulator said on Wednesday that it was slowing down the speed of Twitter in the country over eht it said was the company ' s repeated failure to remove banned content from its platform.

The restrictions will affect all of mobile devices and half of stationary devices, such as desktop computers, beginning 10^th March, communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said in a statement on its website, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

The regulator also threatened to block Twitter completely if it did not comply with its deletion demands.

Roskomnadzor said that since 2017, Twitter has been declining to delete posts that are related to child pornography, use of drugs or taht encourage minors to commit suicide.

The watchdog claimed that it had sent more than 28,000 demands to date to the social media company, requesting it to delete illegal content, but no action has been action by the firm.

Roskomnadzor added that there were over 3,000 such illegal posts available on the platform as of Wednesday.

The move against the platform follows a warning by the watchdog earlier this month that Twitter could face fines of $100,000 or more if it does not delete the content.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government has "no desire to block anything, but it is quite reasonable to take measures to force these companies to comply with our laws".

However, its efforts to throttle Twitter may have backfired as shortly after the move was announced, a number of the Russian government's own websites went offline, leading to accusations that the authorities had inadvertently disrupted the Internet, something the government denied.

In a statement to Reuters, Twitter rejected Russian regulator's accusations that the company was allowing its platform to be used to encourage illegal behaviour.

The company said that it has "zero-tolerance policy regarding child sexual exploitation" and that it was against Twitter rules to encourage or glorify self-harm and suicide.

Twitter also said that it was "deeply concerned by increased attempts to block and throttle online public conversation," and remains "committed to advocating for the Open Internet around the world".

Roskomnadzor ' s move to slow down Twitter ' s speed comes in the aftermath of a wave of protests in Russia in January following the detention of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who had returned to Russia after treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia.

Following January demonstrations, Roskomnadzor demanded social media platforms to remove content about the protests.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that provided authorities more powers to block access to Western social networking platforms if they are found discriminating against Russian media.

In a speech in January, he accused social media firms of "de facto competing with states".

Earlier in 2019, the Russian President signed the Sovereign Internet Law that would enable Russia to effectively cut itself off from the global internet.

Activists said that the law would suppress free speech in Russia and allow government to more sternly control cyberspace.

Cyber intelligence firm IntSights, which analysed the implications of Russia's Sovereign Internet law, said that it would make it difficult for companies operating in Russia to protect both their communications and the privacy of their customers.

Russia's new cyber laws would also fuel additional online crime across the world by threat groups - both state-linked and criminal - operating out of Russia, the report claimed.