A Kiev lawmaker who posted a gruesome video allegedly showing Russian soldiers castrating a Ukrainian prisoner hit Twitter on Friday for temporarily disabling her account.
“Twitter blocked my profile today. Because I posted a video of a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war,” Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun wrote after she was apparently reinstated.
“Twitter decided it was too cruel. But that’s exactly what happens. And deleting the video won’t change that,” she said.
“People should know what Russia is doing!” she added.
Lawmakers released a screenshot of the message she allegedly received from Twitter, saying the video violated the company’s policy against posting blood and cruelty.
The horrifying footage shows camouflaged soldiers speaking in Russian kicking a distraught prisoner in the head as he lies tied with ropes on the ground.
With his mouth gagged, the tortured prisoner moans in desperation as the troops rip his pants to expose his bottom.
As he squirms and moans, they use a carpet cutter on his genitals, eventually cutting them off and dumping them on the ground nearby.
In an alleged second part of the videonot shared by Sovsun but reported by various outlets, the man is then shot and his body is shown being pulled by a rope.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for confirmation that Sovsun’s account had been deactivated.
The social media giant has a stated policy to limit the posting of “gratuitous gore.”
Sovsun is a member of the centrist, pro-European party Voice.Future Publishing in Ukraine via Getty Imag
“We ban gratuitous gore content because research has shown that repeated exposure to violent content online can negatively impact a person’s well-being,” the Twitter policy reads.
However, Twitter says that “very limited exceptions can be made for gory media related to newsworthy events,” going on to say that “graphic violence” can be shared if the post is flagged as “sensitive.”
Sovsun’s first tweet contained a warning about sensitive content, which prevented the video from autoplaying.
Attempts to reach Sovsun in Ukraine were not immediately successful.