Russia demands Twitter to delete MBK media account

New Delhi: Russia’s media watchdog has demanded Twitter to delete the account of MBK media, a news website critical of the Kremlin, for a violation of Russian law, MBK said on Wednesday.

They have also threatened to block the social network entirely if it did not remove “banned content” within a month.

MBK said that it was accused of posting content from Open Russia, a British-based group founded by exiled former oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Moscow has labelled them as undesirable and banned them under a law adopted in 2015.

MBK financed by Khodorkovsky was blocked by Russia in 2018.

MBK media published a message from Roskomnadzor, which said Twitter had received an official request regarding content on the @MBKhMedia account.

Veronika Kutsyllo, the outlet’s editor in chief, denied sharing such material and said that MBKh had not been informed of the watchdog’s demand in advance. “[The state] has been pursuing this new tactic for some time, putting pressure on networks and providers without first warning their potential ‘victims’,” she said.

“The editorial office has not received any warnings from Roskomnadzor,” MBK media’s editor-in-chief Veronica Kutsyllo said. “MBK media … is a media organisation that has no relationships with any organisations, desirable or undesirable from the point of view of Roskomnadzor.