Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, keeps drawing protocols upon Twitter microblogging and social networking service for not removing over 2,800 materials with ‘banned content’.
Twitter failed to delete 2,336 pieces containing ‘calls to commit suicide’, 352 posts with ‘pornographic images of minors’ and 174 texts about ‘ ways and methods of development, manufacture and use of narcotics’, Roskomnadzor claims.
The Russian agency sent to the company more than 28,000 requests to remove certain posts. Russia’s Civic Chamber even called Twitter the anti-leader in ‘disseminating prohibited information’.
Earlier, Russia adopted a law that allows Roskomnadzor to block the Internet resources which ‘censor Russian media’. Under the law, fines, traffic slowdown as well as blockage may be prescribed as a penance.
According to its authors, such initiative appeared in the wake of Twitter’s, Facebook’s and YouTube’s regularly restricting Russians’ access to a number of Russian media. United Russia deputies labelled the measures taken as ‘discrimination’.
Notably, Roskomnadzor demanded that social networks remove information about would-be rallies during the protests in the country.
The Russian State Duma continues working on other mechanisms for blocking social networks and regulating the Internet.
