The Russian government will in one month’s time ban Twitter from operating in the country over banned content.
The deputy head of watchdog Roskomnadzor, Vadim Subbotin, said that the social media company must within 30 days remove content relating to child porn, information on child suicide and drugs, or risk being banned in Russia.
Subbotin noted that Twitter must respond appropriately to the government’s requests or the ban would be effected even without a court order.
As Twitter has been a major rallying point for anti-government protests in recent times, critics say the threat of ban is to force the social media giant into clamping down on political activists.
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The threat also came one day after President Vladimir Putin’s chief critic, Alexei Navalny was clamped into prison on a two-and-half-year term, after the government accused him of violating parole conditions.
Meanwhile, the Russian government is also suing Twitter for allegedly failing to delete material encouraging children to join anti-Putin protests.
The Russian President had in January accused some social media giants of ‘controlling society’ and ‘restricting the right to freely express viewpoints’ but did not give any names.
At least 9 million Russians are on Twitter, which is about eight per cent of the country’s total population.
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