MOSCOW – The Russian government said on Wednesday it was delaying access to Twitter, accusing the social network of not removing illegal content and signaling that the Kremlin was escalating its offensive against US internet companies that had long been a haven for offers freedom of expression.
Shortly after the announcement, Twitter was still accessible in the country, but dozens of Russian government websites went offline for about an hour, including the Kremlin’s website, parliament, several ministries and law enforcement agencies. Russian officials blamed an equipment failure, saying the outage was not related to the move against Twitter.
U.S. government officials said over the weekend that they were planning to retaliate against Russia for a comprehensive hacking attack last year that exploited vulnerabilities in government and corporate computer systems in the United States.
Officials said retaliation is planned in the coming weeks, but it remains unclear on Wednesday whether the disruption of government websites is a sign of the latest version in this cyber conflict or an unrelated bug in the Russian internet.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media said in a statement that the problem with the government websites stems from a failure of equipment at a state-owned telephone company and internet service provider, Rostelkom, and that it is not related to the separate step taken not. by regulators to slow down traffic on Twitter.
The Russian agency made the announcement in a Twitter post.
The Russian telecommunications regulator said it was reducing the speed at which Twitter was loading for Internet users in Russia, although it was not immediately clear how noticeable the move would be. The regulator, Roskomnadzor, whose website also went offline on Wednesday after announcing the action against Twitter, accuses the American company of failing for years to remove reports of illegal drug use or child pornography or messages that ‘minors after suicide’ does not push ‘.
‘With the aim of protecting Russian citizens and forcing the Internet service to comply with the law on the territory of the Russian Federation, from 10 March 2021 central reactive measures were taken against Twitter – specifically the initial acceleration of the service’s speeds in compliance with the regulations, ”the regulator said in a statement.
“If the internet service Twitter continues to ignore the demands of the law, measures against it will continue according to the regulations, until the blocking thereof,” he added.
Twitter did not immediately comment.
The social network has a relatively small reach in Russia, but the suppression can be far-reaching. Although President Vladimir V. Putin reversed democratic freedoms and suppressed independent media, he allowed the Internet to remain essentially free.
Twitter – and to a much greater extent Facebook and Instagram on YouTube – have given Russians ways to speak openly, report and organize, even though the Kremlin controls the television waves.
These social networks, along with Chinese-owned TikTok, played a key role in the protests against the Kremlin that accompanied the return and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny this year. Mr. Navalny has about 2.5 million Twitter followers and his investigation, which was published in January into a suspected secret palace of Mr. Putin, has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.
Russian officials claim that Silicon Valley companies discriminate against Russians by blocking some pro-Kremlin accounts while handing over a megaphone to Kremlin critics. They also said that social networks refused to draw content involving children in the unauthorized protests in support of Mr. Navalny.
Over the past few weeks, the Kremlin has led to an increasing drumming that criticizes U.S. Internet companies and damages them as foreign powers.
“Online, we are starting with child pornography and child prostitution, with the sale and distribution of drugs, with children and teenagers as the target audience,” he said. Putin said this month.
The internet, Mr. Putin said, “respect the moral laws of the society in which we live – otherwise this society will be destroyed from within.”
Twitter has a small user base in Russia, although it is popular with journalists, politicians and opposition activists. A report last year estimated that the service had 690,000 active users in Russia, meaning any public backlash would likely be much smaller if the Kremlin set similar limits for Instagram or YouTube.
Russia, with a population of 144 million, is also a major market for US Internet companies and the threat of closure provides some economic leverage for the Russian government to respond to the growing cyber conflict with the United States. U.S. officials have said they intend to retaliate against Russia, a Texas-based company, SolarWinds, which provides software to government customers and corporate services.
Recent history may also suggest another explanation for the failure of Russian government websites on Wednesday: a beating by a heavy-handed regulator.
In 2018, while trying to shut down the messaging app Telegram, Roskomnadzor accidentally blocked service to thousands of other sites in Russia. By Wednesday afternoon, several Russian government websites, including the Kremlin and parliament, were back online.