Russia Gives Twitter 30 Days to Remove Child Pornography or Face Ban

After discussions failed between Russia and Twitter, Russia has issued the social media platform a deadline to remove content that does not comply with Russian laws. If these demands are not met, users will no longer be able to access the platform within Russia.

Tensions began on 9th March after Russian authorities sued Twitter alongside other social media platforms for allegedly failing to remove posts that urged children to participate in illegal nationwide protests against the jailing of Alexei Navalny, the most high-profile opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

On 10th March, Russia’s internet regulators throttled the speed of Twitter in retaliation for allegedly failing to remove banned content, citing the presence of child pornography, drug use, and tweets encouraging children to commit suicide. The slowdown has been implemented on all mobile devices and half of all non-mobile devices, which includes PCs. Users have reported increased difficulty accessing photos and videos on the site

A Twitter spokesperson said of this move:

“We are aware of reports that Twitter is being intentionally slowed down broadly and indiscriminately in Russia due to apparent content removal concerns. Let us be clear – we have a zero-tolerance policy regarding child sexual exploitation, it is against the Twitter Rules to promote, glorify or encourage suicide and self-harm, and we do not allow the use of Twitter for any unlawful behaviour or to further illegal activities, including the buying and selling of drugs.”

“We remain committed to advocating for the Open Internet around the world and deeply concerned by increased attempts to block and throttle online public conversation."

The threat of an outright ban came from Vadim Subbotin, deputy head of Russia's communications oversight board, Roskomnadzor. He stated:

“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.”

Russian regulators have claimed that they have sent Twitter 28,000 requests to remove illegal content since 2017 and that 3,168 illegal posts are still present on the site.

In January, Lotuseaters.com reported on Twitter’s alleged unwillingness to remove child pornography from their platform. A lawsuit, filed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, referenced a reply to multiple requests to remove such content, which stated that “no violation of their policies had been found”. The lawsuit claims that Twitter has also profited from its failure to remove the content:

“This lawsuit seeks to shine a light on how Twitter has enabled and profited from [child sexual abuse material] on its platform, choosing profits over people, money over the safety of children, and wealth at the expense of human freedom and human dignity.”

“Twitter is not a passive, inactive, intermediary in the distribution of this harmful material; rather, Twitter has adopted an active role in the dissemination and knowing promotion and distribution of this harmful material. Twitter’s own policies, practices, business model, and technology architecture encourage and profit from the distribution of sexual exploitation material.”

Twitter’s most recent iteration of their ‘Child sexual exploitation policy’, from October 2020, states that Twitter has ‘a zero-tolerance child sexual exploitation policy’ in place, stipulating that such content constitutes ‘one of the most serious violations of the Twitter Rules.’