The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the introduction by the social network Twitter of marking the pages of Russian media outlets as affiliated with the state.

Such actions in the department called a violation of the key democratic principles of ensuring the free flow of information and unhindered access to it. The Foreign Ministry recalled that Western media sources receiving funding through the government did not mark social networks.

"This is another manifestation of the systemic policy of" double standards "and discrimination based on country grounds, which are in line with Washington's foreign policy guidelines and unfair competition of the American mainstream news with alternative sources of information," the ministry stressed.

The actions of the American companies Twitter and Facebook in the ministry were called politicized and tendentious, noting the desire to oust the media content of the Russian media from the international information space.

"We call on Internet platforms to resign from the powers of a self-proclaimed political censor and not to deprive their audience of the right to free and unrestricted access to information in violation of fundamental democratic principles," the ministry said.

The diplomats called on specialized international structures and human rights organizations to give an impartial assessment of the actions of the American media corporation.

Twitter previously stated that the tags contain information about the country the account is associated with and whether it is being used by a government official or a government publication.

At the moment, it was clarified in the social network, tags are displayed on Twitter accounts from five countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, Great Britain and the United States), if these accounts belong to the government and are used to actively participate in geopolitics and diplomacy; as well as state media and persons associated with them, such as editors or prominent journalists. In the future, other countries will be included in such policies, Twitter said.

"Twitter will not recommend reading or promoting accounts and tweets tagged with state-owned media," the social media's help center said in a statement.

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It also reported that the tags will appear on the pages of a number of government officials, including foreign ministers, ambassadors, officials and top diplomatic leaders. At the same time, the personal accounts of the heads of state will also not be marked.

After that, the marking designating the TV channel as a "state publication" appeared, in particular, from the RT Twitter account in Russian. Also marked are RT accounts in English, German, French, Arabic and Spanish.

At the same time, the US Congress-sponsored Radio Liberty * does not have such a mark.

The accounts of the Federation Council and the State Duma, the Russian embassies in Great Britain, France and the USA also received the mark.

In the official Twitter account of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the inscription “Government account, Russia” also appeared, as well as on the page of the Russian permanent mission to the UN.

In addition, the inscription "Government account, Russia" appeared on the pages of the President of the Russian Federation, the government, and Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.

The marking appeared on the pages of RIA Novosti, R-Sport, the press center of MIA "Russia Today", the personal page of RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, and in the accounts of a number of other Russian media outlets.

In turn, the press service of the MIA Rossiya Segodnya reported that the media holding is monitoring the development of the situation and expects Twitter to do the same with respect to Western media in order to avoid accusations of double standards - in particular, Radio Liberty notes. British BBC and German Deutsche Welle.

"The corresponding request has already been sent to Twitter by our correspondents," RIA Novosti quotes a statement from the holding.

* Media recognized as a foreign agent by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 05.12.2017.