US short message service Twitter wants to further limit the reach of Russian government accounts due to allegations of misinformation. “We will not strengthen or endorse government accounts for states that restrict access to free information and are involved in an armed conflict between states,” Twitter said on Tuesday. This should apply “regardless” of “whether Twitter is blocked in this country or not”.
Thus, official government accounts should no longer be listed under “Recommendations”. Twitter, like other internet services, has previously blocked Russian state media RT and Sputnik accounts in the European Union. As a result, Russia has restricted access to Twitter.
“When a government blocks or restricts access to online services in its state, thereby undermining the public’s voice and ability to access information freely, but continues to use online services for its own communications, a serious information imbalance arises,” he explained. Twitter.
Since the beginning of its war of aggression in Ukraine, Russia has severely restricted press freedom and freedom of expression. The use of the words “war” and “invasion” to describe the invasion of a neighboring country is prohibited. In addition, the main independent media that still existed in Russia were blocked or closed to avoid problems.
Twitter is of little importance in Russia compared to other networks like Telegram. Head of State Vladimir Putin’s account has relatively few followers at 1.7 million – US President Joe Biden’s account has more than 20 million.
Meanwhile, the American technology company Intel has also reacted to the war in Ukraine: it is now ending all business in Russia. Precautions have been taken to ensure that global business is affected as little as possible, the chip maker said.