Twitter is showing official Russian accounts in search results

After a year, Twitter appears to have unblocked Russian government accounts. The Elon Musk-owned platform now shows Putin and Russian Embassy accounts in search results.

The Telegraph also noticed the Russian authorities’ timetables and recommendations. According to a former Twitter employee, a policy change may have caused this.

Twitter has revised its rules on government and state-affiliated accounts. The previous version contained a section called “Do these labels hinder functionality?” where the firm explained how it restricted some accounts in this category.

Twitter will not promote state-affiliated media companies or their Tweets. “In limited circumstances where there is a heightened risk for harm, including situations where governments block access to internet information in the context of an armed conflict, Twitter will also not recommend or amplify certain government accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people,” the policy read.

The corporation eliminated that section. Over the weekend, Musk told a user that Twitter will “neither prompt nor limit their accounts” and “rapidly resolve any attempts at exploiting the system.” Several Kremlin Twitter accounts have manipulated narratives.

This platform will neither promote nor limit their accounts, but we will rapidly address any attempts at gaming the system.

It is a weak move to engage in censorship just because others do so. Letting our press be free when theirs is not demonstrates strength.

— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) April 9, 2023

After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Twitter banned official accounts from countries that censored content.

“When a state restricts or limits access to online services, undermining the public’s voice and capacity to freely access information, yet continues to use online services for their own communications, a major information imbalance is formed. “At periods of active, armed interstate conflict, the harms created by this imbalance are acute; access to information, and to the ability to share information, are of crucial importance,” the company said in a blog post.

Following taking over Twitter, Musk has tried to reject the social network’s function as an arbitrator of truth, dismissed many moderation team members, and increased Community Notes, the company’s crowdsourced fact-checking product, to perform the hard labor.

Over the weekend, Anonymous Operations criticized Twitter’s inaction on a Russian official’s message urging the “disappearance of Ukraine.” Musk responded that all news is “some degree of propaganda” and that people should be able to decide for themselves, implying that Twitter won’t meddle in topics that may have violated the social network’s speech policy under the previous management.

I’m told Putin called me a war criminal for helping Ukraine, so he’s not exactly my best friend.

All news is to some degree propaganda. Let people decide for themselves.

— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) April 9, 2023

Twitter made tough media judgments under Musk. Once Substack launched Notes, a Twitter clone, the newsletter platform disabled responses, retweets, and likes to postings featuring Substack links last week. Twitter has dropped most of the restrictions, but it still limits Substack link searches.

After criticism, Musk renamed NPR “Government Sponsored Media” from “US state affiliate media.” BBC, PBS, and VOA are likewise considered “Government Sponsored Media.” The BBC objects to this term because it is sponsored by “the British public through the license fee.”

Since the New York Times refused to pay Twitter for verification, Musk deleted the checkmark last week. The corporation expected to remove historical verification marks on April 1, but hasn’t yet.