Russia extends deadline for Twitter to remove 'banned' content

Russia on Monday extended deadline for Twitter to remove illegal and 'banned' content from the social media platform. Russia has already slowed down Twitter within its territory. The new deadline to remove the content is in mid-May. Twitter is co-operating with Russian authorities.

State telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor imposed slowdowns on Twitter's services in mid-March, accusing it of failing to remove content related to child pornography, drug use and calls for minors to commit suicide.

The social media giant said at the time it had a "zero tolerance" policy regarding "child sexual exploitation" and did not promote suicide and self-harm.

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The watchdog gave Twitter a month to remove the content or face a complete blockage in Russia.

Roskomnadzor said in a statement on Monday that after the slowdown, Twitter had deleted nearly 2,000 posts containing illegal content and was moving more quickly to take content down.

It said the slowdown measures would remain in place until May 15 but that a decision had been taken not to completely block Twitter because the US company had "for the first time" changed the way its content moderation service worked in Russia.

"Roskomnadzor will continue to cooperate with Twitter management until the social network completely deletes all banned information in the quickest possible manner," the statement said.

After the slowdown began last month, Twitter denounced Russia's attempts to "block and throttle online public conversation".

Russia has in recent months stepped up efforts to impose more control on online platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, with President Vladimir Putin saying large tech companies have become so influential that they are "competing" with sovereign states.

(With AFP inputs)