MOSCOW, June 5 The Russian Federation may start work on reviewing the decision to limit the work of Twitter, but the platform still has many important steps to take, to prove that it is ready quickly fight the spread of fakes, said State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin.
Earlier, Vice Speaker of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov (NL) sent an appeal to the head of the RKN Andrey Lipov with a proposal to consider lifting restrictions on access to Twitter in the Russian Federation, a copy of the document is available. Davankov noted that the platform's policy is changing «due to the change of ownership.»
“Before a decision is made to unblock it in Russia, the Twitter platform must take many more important steps. In particular, it must prove that it is ready to quickly combat the spread of fakes, moderate the content that surrounds users in the information space… I believe that our country can really start working to review the decision to limit the operation of the site,» Nemkin said.
He noted that Twitter is an important communication tool, «popular all over the world.» According to him, Twitter's policy towards Russian accounts has changed «recently compared to how blatantly anti-Russian it was in 2022.»
«Twitter was the first of a galaxy of foreign social networks to recognize that freedom of speech and dissemination of information is a pillar of any social platform,» he added.
He clarified that if the blocking of the platform was lifted, he «would have created an account there himself.»
In April last year, Twitter announced that the social network would not promote or recommend pages related to the Russian leadership, either in the feed or in search. In addition, large state-funded media holdings have been flagged. In the fall, businessman Elon Musk finally closed the $44 billion deal to acquire the social network, promising to liberalize its editorial policy, which has been criticized for heavy censorship. In April, Twitter again gives up the accounts of Russian government departments in the search, including the pages of the Kremlin, the Russian Foreign Ministry and embassies.
Access to Twitter in Russia has been restricted at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office since February 24, 2022. In December last year, amid reports of a discussion about removing the blocking from the network, the press service of Roskomnadzor stated that «there are no grounds for unblocking the mentioned resource.»