Twitter has blocked the account of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, the delegation's head, Konstantin Gavrilov, said on Saturday
MOSCOW/VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2021) Twitter has blocked the account of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, the delegation's head, Konstantin Gavrilov, said on Saturday.
According to the platform, the account violated its rules.
"On Feb 12, @TwitterSupport blocked the official account of the RUS Arms Control Delegation (@armscontrol_rus). What are the reasons? An alternative position of RUS on the trends of the current pol-mil situation in Europe voiced at the @OSCE [the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Seminar on Mil Doctrines?" Gavrilov wrote on his Twitter account.
The Russian diplomat said that Twitter resorted to "naked censorship" by blocking official accounts presenting position of one or another country.
Later on Saturday, Gavrilov told Sputnik that the delegation would address OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid over Twitter's move, adding that the Russian side already asked the social network for clarifications but does not expect to receive an answer.
"We will now turn to OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid, we will force it [Twitter] to speak out, now, they will be pressured," Gavrilov said.
The diplomat added that he linked the blocking to the fact that the delegation tweeted a number of statements about NATO and military doctrines.
Meanwhile, the Russian foreign ministry expressed hope that the blocking of the delegation's account was due to a technical issue, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik, adding that Moscow has already sent a request to the social platform.
"[We] have already sent a request to the company. We hope that it is a purely technical issue," Zakharova said.
Delegation head Gavrilov later said that the account was unblocked but lost all its subscribers.
"Twitter has unblocked the account without offering explanations ... But all subscribers disappeared, we will have to start from scratch. The content was intact," he told Sputnik.
Earlier this week, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it decided to skip the military doctrine seminar of the OSCE for the first time in 30 years. citing the West's unfriendly policy. Russia was represented by the delegation to the Vienna talks and spoke about military doctrines at the closing session.
