‘Russia will block Twitter in one month’

MOSCOW-Russia will block Twitter in one month unless the US social media giant complies with a demand to remove banned content, Russian news agencies cited a senior regulatory official as saying yesterday.

Moscow said last week it had slowed down the speed of Twitter inside Russia in retaliation for what it described as a failure to remove a specific list of banned content.

Twitter said at the time that it was worried about the impact on free speech of the Russian action, and denied that it allowed its platform to be used to promote illegal behaviour as alleged by Russian authorities. In a move that escalates the growing stand-off, Vadim Subbotin, the deputy head of Roskomnadzor, the communications watchdog, was cited as saying yesterday that Twitter had not addressed Russian concerns yet and would be blocked in Russia in a month unless it did so.

“Twitter is not reacting to our requests as they should. If the situation carries on then it will be blocked in a month without a court order,” the Interfax news agency cited Subbotin as saying.-Reuters.