Twitter lifts restrictions on Russian government accounts

Twitter has lifted restrictions on accounts linked to the Russian government that were put in place last April after the full-scale Russian invasion.

Tests conducted by the media last week showed that Russian government accounts appear at the top of certain search results and in other account suggestions for subscriptions.

In particular, we are talking about the accounts of Russian President Putin, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and their embassy in Britain.

Last April, in the weeks after Russian troops entered Ukraine, Twitter said it would "not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict", saying the policy would instantly apply to Russian government accounts.

It said this would mean the accounts would not be recommended in searches, the home timeline and other parts of the service.

However, now Russian government accounts featured at the top of certain search results and would show up in Twitter’s algorithmically-driven For You feed for a newly created account, even when it did not follow them.

A former Twitter executive confirmed that it would be exceedingly unlikely that this change would have happened accidentally, or without the knowledge and direction of the company's staff.

Twitter also lifted restrictions on Russian and Chinese state media accounts last week, among them RT and the Global Times, introduced in 2020.

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