Russia accuses US of engaging in unfair competition after Twitter slowdown

Russia accused the United States of using IT opportunities to engage in unfair competition on Saturday, adding that social media platforms arbitrarily and indiscriminately censoring content. Earlier this week, Russia said it was slowing down the speed of Twitter in retaliation for “a failure to remove banned content”, reported Reuters. 

Russia’s threat to block Twitter escalated a row between Moscow and US social media firms. Moscow has slammed Twitter after it labelled some Russian media “state-affiliated”. 

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook, “[The platforms] do not, in principle, have unified standards for managing themselves. This is a semantic and technological stalemate.”

She added, “Digital content is arbitrarily and indiscriminately censored by certain moderators without the decision of a court or a relevant, competent authority.”

According to Twitter, it is deeply concerned by increased attempts to block and throttle online public conversation. It added that  it was worried about the impact on free speech of the Russian action to slow down its service.