Russia Calls On Twitter to Renew Access to FM’s Post on Bucha

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it is the first time such a restriction has been applied to the official Foreign Ministry account since 2011 when it was created.

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According to a statement by the country's Foreign Ministry, Russia has demanded Twitter restore access to the Ministry's post in English, noting that it contains the main arguments of the Russian Defense Ministry concerning the provocation in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

Referring to the move made by the social network, the Foreign Ministry said Twitter has carried out an act of absolute censorship, concealing an English-language post on the official account of the Russian Foreign Ministry that provided the standpoint of the country's Defense Ministry concerning the situation in Bucha, as well as a hyperlink to the whole text.

Twitter took this measure under the guise of notification of violating the platform's rules. In this regard, the Ministry said that the social network tagged the post as being offensive and then proceeded to obstruct user access to the maximum extent.   

The Russian Foreign Minister said: "We demand that the U.S. social network immediately restore access to the aforesaid publication. It is essential to rule out a biased approach to content moderation on its resources in the future. Otherwise, Twitter will gain notoriety as an accomplice of the Kiev regime's atrocities."

Russia has vehemently denied Ukraine and Western media accusations of blaming Russia for the mass killings of civilians in the Ukrainian city, claiming that this is another provocation that will only harm negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.