Russia backs off plan to block Twitter but extends slowdown

The move comes as the state media watchdog said Twitter has been removing banned content more quickly

Russia backed off a threat on Monday to block Twitter inside the country but said it will continue to slow down the social media site until mid-May.

The move comes as the state media watchdog, Roskomnazdor, said Twitter has been removing banned content more quickly. It had said Twitter failed to remove content encouraging pornography and content about drug use.

Taking into account Twitter’s decision to change the principles and speed of its moderation service in Russia for the first time ever and to remove a significant share of the prohibited content, Roskomnadzor decided not to proceed to the next measure – complete blocking of the social network on the territory of the country – and to extend the Twitter traffic slowdown to May 15, the media watchdog said in a statement.

Still, the agency said Twitter took, on average, 81 hours to remove flagged content. Russian laws require that such content be removed within 24 hours after notification.

Twitter now has until May 15 to come into “full compliance” with Russian law, the agency said.

Roskomnazdor announced March 10 that it would slow Twitter and threatened to block it completely.

Twitter said it has been in contact with Roskomnazdor.

It was a productive discussion about how we can both work to ensure that reports of such illegal content are dealt with expeditiously, Twitter said in a statement.

Twitter maintained it has a zero-tolerance policy for child exploitation, and content encouraging unlawful behaviour.

In addition to potentially harmful content, Russian officials have been critical of social media’s role in fuelling protests.

Officials said social media platforms were used to encourage children to participate in the demonstrations.

The Russian government has been threatening Twitter and Facebook for years with shutdowns, but never followed through.