Roskomnadzor threatens to block Twitter in Russia in one month

Russia’s federal censor, Roskomnadzor (RKN), plans to block Twitter in one month unless the network removes certain “illegal content,” RKN’s deputy head Vadim Subbotin announced on Monday March 16, Interfax reported. 

So far, Roskomnadzor “hasn’t recorded any concrete steps taken by Twitter to remove the prohibited content,” Subbotin said. He also added that “there’s still time to negotiate.”

On the morning of March 10, Roskomnadzor announced that it had taken steps to throttle Twitter traffic in Russia. The federal censor attributed the decision to the network’s failure to remove more than 3,000 posts containing illegal information since 2017.

Against the backdrop of this announcement, a number of Russia’s key government websites went down, including the sites for the Kremlin, the Cabinet, the State Duma, the Federation Council, and Roskomnadzor itself. The official reason for the disruptions was a technical malfunction at Rostelecom, which provides hosting services to the government. Roskomnadzor insisted that this had nothing to do with the Twitter slowdown.