Russia extended Twitter slowdown and threatened Facebook and YouTube

Russia announced Monday that it would continue to slow down the operations of the US social network Twitter, due to its “illegal” content, and threatened Facebook and YouTube with similar measures.

“After a review and taking into account the efforts made by the management of the social network, the decision has been taken not to block the Twitter service, to lift the restrictions on access to fixed networks, while the slowdown in traffic on mobile devices will continue ”, said a statement by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media and internet regulator.

Roskomnadzor began slowing down Twitter services in mid-March, accusing the platform of failing to remove content related to child pornography, drug use and calls for underage suicide.

The entity gave Twitter a one-month deadline to remove the content, if it doesn’t comply, it may be blocked entirely in Russia. Last month, he extended that deadline until mid-May.

In a statement released on Monday, The regulator said it would not block the social network but would continue to slow down its operations, after verifying through an audit that Twitter had eliminated more than 91% of “banned information”, which led the government to partially lift restrictions.

In this way, the Russian regulator positively assesses Twitter’s efforts to comply with the requirements of the Eurasian country’s legislation. However, To completely lift the imposed restrictions, Twitter must remove all identified prohibited content.

In addition, Roskomnadzor announced that it had detected cases of illegal content “On other websites, including Facebook and YouTube.” “If these platforms do not take adequate measures, similar sanctions could be applied to them,” he said, according to Russian news agency Sputnik.

“If these platforms do not take the appropriate measures, similar sanctions will be applied to them,” warned the regulator.

Last month, Twitter was fined three times in Russia totaling around $ 116,000 for failing to remove messages calling for opposition protests.

The regulator slowed down the connection to Twitter on March 10, for failing to eliminate content that incites teenagers to suicide, as well as content that disseminates child pornography and drug propaganda, among others. According to Roskomnadzor, the US digital giant has left more than 28,000 requests to delete these messages unanswered over the past four years.

At that time, Twitter responded to Russia that it was maintaining its “commitment to promoting an open internet all over the world” and said it was “very concerned about the increasing attempts to block and limit public conversations by line”.

On April 5, the same entity extended the measure until May 15, which was completed on Saturday and after which a new extension was announced on Monday.

With information from AFP and EFE

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