Roskomnadzor will block Twitter on the territory of Russia in a month if the social network does not delete the prohibited information.
This was announced on March 16 by the deputy head of the department Vadim Subbotin.
After the expiration of the specified period, depending on the actions of Twitter, "appropriate decisions will be made," Subbotin TASS said.
"If Twitter does not fulfill the requirements of Roskomnadzor, the requirements of Russian legislation, respectively, we will consider the issue of a complete blocking of the service on the territory of Russia," Subbotin emphasized.
The deputy head of Roskomnadzor stressed that the department has tools to completely block the Internet service in Russia.
“We have technical capabilities,” he said.
At the same time, Subbotin clarified that the disruptions in the work of a number of Internet resources after the slowdown in Twitter was not related to the actions of Roskomnadzor.
Recall that on March 10, the department began to slow down the speed of Twitter on all mobile gadgets and 50% of stationary devices.
As Roskomnadzor explained then, this is due to the fact that the social network does not systematically remove prohibited content - including child pornography and publications that incline minors to suicide.
The department emphasized that there is every reason for a complete blocking of the service, but there is still hope for the constructive position of the company.
Later, on March 12, it became known that Twitter representatives had not yet contacted Roskomnadzor and had not answered questions from the department.
As the head of the department for control and supervision in the field of electronic communications Yevgeny Zaitsev noted, the Russian side is ready for dialogue.
“There are claims related to the distribution of illegal content.
They did not comply with the legal requirements of the Russian authorities, in connection with which we took the measures prescribed by law.
But our claims remain unanswered, no one contacted us, there are no answers to our questions, ”Zaitsev explained.
There was no reaction from Twitter even later.
On March 16, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media noted that Twitter is the only social network that operates in Russia, ignoring the requirements of Roskomnadzor "to remove clearly dangerous content."
At the same time, it was noted that the Twitter administration is aware of the problem, is aware of the list of those addresses where prohibited information is posted.
“Blocking is a complete restriction of access to the Twitter platform on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Now there is a slowdown, and blocking is a complete restriction of access, "Vadim Subbotin emphasized on the air of the Moscow Talking radio station.
Along with this, the department allows similar restrictive measures against other platforms that violate Russian legislation.
“We do not rule out that if other sites also violate Russian legislation and do not comply with the requirements of Roskomnadzor, then we will also go along the technical line,” Subbotin said.
He clarified that we are talking about slowing down traffic and completely restricting access.
Note that soon after the decision to slow down the speed of Twitter in Russia, information appeared that representatives of the service expressed concern about "attempts to block public dialogue on the network."
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova commented on this statement, recalling the previous decisions of the Twitter administration.
In early January, the social network, along with other companies, blocked the account of the 45th US President Donald Trump.
The formal reason for this was the incident at the Capitol, when supporters of Trump, who did not admit his defeat in the election, burst into the building.
Against this backdrop, large tech companies have decided to limit the president's ability to speak out on social media.
"It was stated in the same Twitter that a couple of months ago the US president was blocked (then the post was held by Donald Trump. -
RT
), or in another?"
- wrote Zakharova on Facebook.
According to her, "the company betrays concern about what it is doing."
In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry previously drew attention to Twitter's position in relation to the Russian media, which the department called open censorship.
The official representative of the ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that the Russian media "without trial and investigation are labeled as allegedly unreliable, excluded from the search, blocked, and deleted accounts."