Twitter said on Tuesday it will not recommend Russian government accounts to users as part of a rule change affecting accounts run by states which limit access to the open internet and are engaged in armed interstate conflict.
Russia has battled big tech companies to control information flows after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Kremlin calls its actions in Ukraine a"special military operation." Moscow has throttled access to Twitter by slowing its service and has banned Meta's Facebook and Instagram. The company said its new measure of not amplifying the accounts would apply whether Twitter itself was blocked or not and that it would first apply the policy to Russian government accounts.
The company also said it would require government or state affiliated media accounts to remove any media published that features prisoners of war. It said in cases where there was a"compelling public interest" in accessing the content, such as for evidentiary purposes, it would instead add a warning to the tweets.