Russia Disrupts Twitter Access in Banned Content Row Updated: March 10, 2021 Russian officials and regulators have amped up their rhetoric against foreign social media platforms this year. PA Images / TASS
Russia’s media watchdog announced Wednesday that it will disrupt Twitter s loading speeds within the country for failing to remove banned content, a move that experts say represents a new crackdown on foreign social media.
“Starting March 10, 2021, centralized response measures have been taken against Twitter to protect Russian citizens and force the internet service to comply with Russian legislation,” Roskomnadzor said in a statement.
Roskomnadzor said it will slow down Twitter which polls say is used by 3% of Russians on all Russian cellphones and half of its desktops. The slowdown will mainly affect photo and video content on Twitter, the watchdog said.
The new year in Russia kicked off with mass arrests of protesters pushing back against the detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, an inconvenient development in a nation.
Access Now 10 March 2021 | 2:30 pm
Access Now received a report from Internet Protection Society, Russia that an internet shutdown was detected in two major Kazakhstan cities of Almaty and Nur-Sultan on February 28, 2021, from approximately 14:00 to 17:00 local time. Foreign media organizations, as well local groups like Media Alliance and Legal Media Center, Kazakhstan, have also reported that the shutdown took place. Measurements from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) system also indicate network disruptions during the relevant time period.
The shutdown coincides with the anti-government protests in several Kazakh cities calling for the release of political prisoners, following a resolution passed by the European Parliament on human rights in the country. The authorities responded with violence and detained approximately 50 protesters.
A Russian communications regulator said Wednesday it will slow the speeds of posting photos and videos to Twitter, over a complaint that the social media platform isn t removing banned content and misinformation.
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