Twitter Limits Russian Government Accounts; the world’s most popular microblogging platform recently implemented additional control measures against Russian government accounts to diminish the influence of official propaganda on the social media platform. This implies that official accounts will no longer be “recommended” to Twitter users in all areas of the app, including timelines, notifications, and searches, according to a statement from the network.
Twitter had already barred the accounts of Russian state-run media RT and Sputnik in the European Union, just like its rival Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Moscow retaliated by censoring access to Facebook and Instagram in the nation and restricted access to Twitter.
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According to the company, any government that “restricts access to the open internet while engaged in armed war” will face the consequences. “We will not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict — whether Twitter is blocked in that country or not,” Twitter said.
The platform has been severely limited in Russia since the war began in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin currently has two official accounts on the social media platform: one in Russian and the other in English. They each have 3.6 million and 1.7 million Twitter followers.
Twitter said allowing Russian government officials to post freely on the social media site whilst simultaneously limiting the platform in Russia “creates a harmful information imbalance”.
Content on more than 300 official government accounts would no longer be “suggested or amplified” as part of the limits enforced by Twitter on Russian government accounts. This means that Twitter’s robust algorithm will not promote these accounts.
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Official ministry and embassy profiles and the accounts of high-ranking Russian officials are among the Russian government accounts targeted. These accounts have previously been chastised for propagating false information during the Ukraine conflict. Still, unlike tweets from Russian state-run media, they have never been subjected to Twitter’s strict monitoring.