Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Nikolsky | Reuters
Russia has announced that it will impose restrictions on the social media platform Twitter because they have not removed illegal content from its platform.
The Federal Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Communications Oversight Service, also known as Roskomnadzor, announced on Wednesday that it was slowing down Twitter.
The watchdog for communication said it was taking measures to keep the citizens of Russia safe and that it could eventually block the service if Twitter did not respond accordingly.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Roskomnadzor said in a statement on its website that the speed will be reduced on all mobile devices and 50% of non-mobile devices, such as computers.
Roskomnadzor accused Twitter of not removing content that encourages minors to commit suicide, as well as child pornography and drug use.
The regulator said it had asked Twitter to remove links and publications more than 28,000 times between 2017 and March 2021. He said other social networks were more collaborative than Twitter on removing content that encourages minors to commit suicide.
Russia’s move to stifle Twitter follows similar actions by governments in Turkey and India that have also threatened imprisonment for platform managers.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, told CNBC that the “threat to restrict, block or ban social media platforms appears to be a growing trend for countries notorious for stricter, less democratic regimes . “
Social media platforms are constantly struggling to keep inappropriate content off their platforms. Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter all use a combination of software and human content moderators to police what is shared on their platforms, but none of them really master content moderation.
One of the most notorious recent examples was the Christchurch shooter who broadcast his massacre live on Facebook and other platforms. The video was quickly cloned by other users and shared again as the moderator was able to take it down, and it could still be found on Facebook a few weeks after the attack.