Russia partially halts punitive Twitter slowdown, warns other tech platforms

MOSCOW: Russia partially halted a punitive slowdown of Twitter on Monday after it deleted a large portion of content deemed illegal by Moscow, but warned other U.S. internet platforms to comply with local legislation or face similar penalties.

State communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has since March impeded the speed of Twitter for not removing banned content quickly enough, and threatened to block it entirely, part of a wider drive by Moscow to tighten its control over the internet.

On Monday, however, the watchdog said it no longer planned to block the service and the slowdown would only remain on mobile devices.