MOSCOW, (Sputnik) – The social network Twitter has consistently violated Russian laws, including anti-extremism legislation, the head of Russia’s federal communications agency Roskomnadzor said Tuesday.
“Twitter has been constantly violating Russian legislation, including on the fight against extremism,” Alexander Zharov told reporters.
The agency’s head noted that, according to official statistics, in 2014 Twitter fulfilled almost 3,000 requests by the US government to disclose the personal information of users, while none of Roskomnadzor’s 108 requests has been fulfilled.
Twitter’s refusal to block the accounts of “popular opponents of the Russian government” as well as accounts spreading extremist information regarding events in Ukraine is also baffling, Zharov added.
The agency will send a formal request to Twitter asking the company to clarify its position on Russia’s requests soon, the Roskomnadzor’s head said.
In its latest transparency report, Twitter revealed a 40 percent global increase in user information requests by governments, with the United States leading the way. The San Francisco-based social media giant provided the US government with some information in 80 percent of requests in the last half of 2014, according to the report.