Moscow completely blocked access to Twitter in February, as part of a broader effort to control the ... [+]
Even as Elon Musk has reinstated thousands of Twitter accounts, users in Russia will still be largely unable to access the social media platform. Moscow completely blocked access to Twitter in February, as part of a broader effort to control the spread of information following its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
NetBlocks, a digital advocacy group that tracks Internet outages, first reported that access to service was restricted just days after Russia began its invasion.
Russia had also completely blocked access to Facebook in retaliation for the social network's effort to place restrictions on state-owned media. Facebook and its sister platform Instagram removed the news outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik within the European Union (EU) in response to the invasion. That action drew an immediate response from Russia's communications regulator, which blocked the services.
Though the restrictions can be circumvented with a virtual private network (VPN), most regular users have still been largely unable to reach the services.
"Russia needs to control the narrative of the war against Ukraine," explained technology analyst and social media expert Roger Entner of Recon Analytics.
"Allowing the truth through Twitter or any other network Russia does not control which would disturb that false narrative is not in Russia's interest," added Entner.
Unblocking Not Happening
Now more than nine months later, it is unlikely that access to the social media platforms will be restored – even as State Duma member Anton Tkachev (of the New People party) had called upon Andrei Lipov, head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media within the Russian government, to consider lifting the restrictions on Twitter.
"There are no grounds for unblocking the mentioned resource," the Russian telecom watchdog said in response, according to the state media outlet Tass.
Given that the war in Ukraine hasn't exactly gone as planned could explain Moscow's decision to keep a tight lid on social media, especially as platforms like Twitter were widely used as a communication tool in 2011's Arab Spring movement.
The Kremlin may see the microblogging service as a platform to spread dissent.
"There's no surprise here. Twitter has been used to organize opposition to other authoritarian regimes and Putin is wary of that," said Dr. Matthew Schmidt, director of the International Affairs Program at the University of New Haven and senior consultant at Blue-Ink Global.
"It's also a major source of truthful news about the war, which is something the Kremlin has tried valiantly to suppress from its population," Schmidt explained. "That's why it followed the Chinese model and created entire alternate services where it controls content, like VK. Twitter and Telegram feed off each other each, driving content for the other in a feedback loop."
Access to social media could make it very difficult for Russian President Vladimir Putin to control the narrative. Already, the Russian leader has announced that he won't hold his annual end-of-the-year press conference, which experts suggest is due to the fact that he doesn't want to face hard questions about the war.
Twitter has also practically offered a virtual play-by-play of Russia's defeats in Ukraine.
"You can see posts of each tank killed and helicopter shot down, and more importantly, videos of what Russian soldiers think of the war and their conditions and the sense their government has abandoned them," said Schmidt. "The totality of these messages is a dagger pointed at the heart of the Kremlin's domestic propaganda and it all exists on Twitter."
