The move comes amid growing efforts by Moscow to exert greater influence on American social media platforms and to express frustration with officials about their failure to comply with Russian laws.
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Russia’s state communications watchdog said on Wednesday that it was slowing Twitter’s pace, accusing the social media platform of repeatedly failing to remove banned content from its site.
Roskomnadzor threatened to completely block the service, saying that as of Wednesday it had more than 3,000 posts with illegal content.
Twitter is widely used inside Russia by other Kremlin critics Alexi Navalny, like other social media, which had a nationwide protest last month.
The regulator said in a statement on its website, “Slow will be applied to 100% mobile devices and 50% non-mobile devices.”
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“If (Twitter) continues to ignore the requirements of the law, enforcement measures will continue to be consistent with response regulations (all methods of blocking),” it said.
Twitter did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
Wednesday’s move comes amid mounting efforts by Moscow to exert greater influence on American social media platforms and to express disappointment about their failure by authorities to comply with Russian laws.
Last December, the lower house of parliament supported major new fines on platforms that failed to remove banned content and another bill that would allow them to be banned for “discriminating” against Russian media.
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