Russia is seeking to retaliate against Twitter for continued violation of Russian obscenity laws which are regulated by its media watchdog — the Federal Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Communications Oversight Service, also known as Roskomnadzor.
Specifically Russia has said Twitter failed to comply in removing over 3,100 posts displaying banned content including pornography, suicide and production of drugs. In response, Russia announced Wednesday it's slowing down Twitter upload speeds, impacting 50% of desktops in Russia.
Roskomnadzor is now threatening the next step will be to block Twitter completely from the country.
The regulator said in its statement, "With the aim of protecting Russian citizens and forcing the internet service to follow the law on the territory of the Russian Federation, centralized reactive measures have been taken against Twitter starting March 10, 2021 — specifically, the initial throttling of the service’s speeds, in accordance with the regulations."
"If the internet service Twitter continues to ignore the demands of the law, measures against it will continue in accordance with the regulations, up to and including blocking it."
Twitter has been named as the only social platform that has "openly ignored the Russian authorities’ demand to remove the banned content," the statement added.
Separately the Russian media regulator filed lawsuits targeting Twitter and other US-based social media platforms for spreading 'disinformation' related to the officially banned mass protests in support of anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny. A number of media pundits believe it's the Navalny situation that's really driving Russia's retaliation against Twitter.
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