MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it was disrupting Twitter’s services because the platform had failed to remove “illegal” content, the latest in a series of moves exerting control over foreign tech giants.

The Kremlin has been clamping down on sites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in recent months for hosting content supporting jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media watchdog, said the disruption aimed to “protect Russian citizens” after Twitter failed to comply with its requests to delete content related to child pornography, drug use and calls for minors to commit suicide.

The watchdog did not reference calls to join opposition protests demanding Navalny’s release that had angered officials earlier this year.

Roskomnadzor said the restrictions would amount to a “slowdown in service speed” for all mobile users and 50 percent of desktop users, later adding it would only affect photo and video content.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2021