Russia extends punitive Twitter slowdown to mid-May

Moscow (Reuters) – Russia said on Monday it would extend a punitive slowdown on Twitter until May 15, but acknowledged that the US social media company had accelerated the deletion of what Moscow calls banned content.

Moscow has traditionally taken on a more important role in the Internet police than neighboring China. But as friction has risen this year over the arrest and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, it has signaled a tougher line.

Since March, Russia has blocked the speed of Twitter because it does not remove content it considers illegal and has threatened to block it altogether. Photos and videos take longer to load for some users.

However, in a statement on Monday, Roskomnadzor, the state communications supervisor, said Twitter had talks with Russian authorities on April 1, resulting in an agreement to grant it more time and an acknowledgment that the banned content was deleted faster.

Twitter has confirmed talks with Russia.

“It was a productive discussion about how we can both work to ensure that reports of such illegal content are dealt with promptly,” he said in a statement.

Roskomnadzor said that, on average, Twitter removes illegal content within 81 hours of receiving a request. This is still much longer than the 24 hours required by law.

Russian authorities have accused Twitter and others this year of not deleting posts that Moscow said it illegally asked children to participate in anti-Kremlin protests.

Roskomnadzor says he wants Twitter to delete content that contains child pornography, drug abuse information, or calls for minors to commit suicide.

Twitter denies permission to use its platform to promote illegal behavior, says it has a zero-tolerance policy on the sexual exploitation of children, and prohibits the promotion of suicide or self-harm.

After Russia announced the measure to slow down trafficking, Twitter said it was worried about the impact on free speech.

Russia tried, but failed to block the popular messaging application Telegram in 2018.

Roskomnadzor did not say how Twitter is slowing down, but proponents of Internet freedom say it probably involves traffic control and deep packet inspection (IPR), 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 authorities looked more technically capable and that their threat to block Twitter was probably more realistic.

Large social media companies have been involved in a growing number of disputes not only in Russia but around the world as governments try to reduce their power.