Russia says US seeking unfair competition in all areas

Russia this week said it was slowing down the speed of Twitter in retaliation for what it described as a failure to remove banned content. It threatened to block the US platform outright, a move which escalating a row between Moscow and US social media firms, Reuters reported.

Twitter currently labels some Russian media "state-affiliated media", a move decried by Moscow. President Vladimir Putin signed laws in December handing Russia new powers to restrict US social media giants.

"[The platforms] do not, in principle, have unified standards for managing themselves. This is a semantic and technological stalemate," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

"Digital content is arbitrarily and indiscriminately censored by certain moderators without the decision of a court or a relevant, competent authority," she added.

MA/Reuters