Watchdog reminds Twitter to delete banned info fully by May 15

MOSCOW, Apr 30 (PRIME) -- The Russian communications service has warned Twitter about the need to delete all banned information by May 15, the watchdog said on Friday in a statement.

Twitter pledged to delete or block the remaining illegal materials and react to the authority’s requests faster.

Since March 10, when Twitter’s work was slowed down, the microblogging social network has deleted or blocked 60% of materials with the locally forbidden information, containing child pornography, drugs and suicidal content. More than 1,000 illegal materials are still available, the watchdog said.

Prior to the restrictions, Twitter had more than 3,000 banned materials subject to more than 28,000 requests of deletion in open access since 2017.

“During the limitations, the communications service discovered over 900 new banned materials on Twitter. The average time of reaction by the social network to the authority’s request on the newly found materials counted 81 hours, which does not meet the law’s requirement, giving 24 hours for deletion from the moment of receipt of a warning from an authority,” the communications watchdog said.

Twitter also said it will prepare a roadmap to align its work fully in compliance with the Russian law. The social network must stick to the law, in force since February 1, saying that the social networks must discover and block illegal materials on their own.

The watchdog said it agreed with Twitter to organize a hotline between the authority’s departments and the social network’s moderation service.

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