If you’re trying to obtain information from both sides of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Twitter just made your job a little bit harder.
The far-left platform has restricted 300 official Russian government accounts, suppressing them across all feeds. Twitter said posts from the accounts will no longer be recommended in timelines, notifications, or anywhere else on the site.
This effectively suppresses the Russian government on Twitter. Posts from the accounts can only be seen by following the accounts and enabling chronological timelines (via the three stars icon at the top right middle of the Twitter Home screen on desktop browsers), or by navigating directly to the feeds of the sanctioned accounts.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a joint press conference with Kazakhstan’s President following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 10, 2022. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the media at a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz after their meeting at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
Twitter said it took action in response to Russia banning the platform in the country, citing a policy against any government that “restricts access to the open internet while they’re engaged in armed conflict.”
The accounts will no longer be recommended in timelines, notifications or elsewhere on the site, Twitter said.
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”.
As part of Tuesday’s action, content on more than 300 official government accounts will no longer be “recommended or amplified”. This means Twitter’s powerful algorithm will not promote these accounts.
While Twitter says its action is a response to the Russian government blocking access to the platform, Russia said its decision to block Twitter and other Silicon Valley platforms was in response to those services restricting Russian media such as RT and Sputnik.
Since the Russian intervention in Ukraine began, Ukraine along with its western allies has been urging Silicon Valley to deny Russia and its supporters access to social media platforms.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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