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Russian embassy in US advises Twitter to think about Moscow's potential response

The online news and social networking service Twitter has made a decision to remove advertising from all accounts of Russia's RT TV and Sputnik news agency

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. The management of the Twitter microblog service should think well about measures that Moscow may take in response to its decision to off-board all advertising from accounts of certain Russian media, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in the US said on Thursday.

"Just imagine what happens if Russian decides to off-board Twitter advertising in Russia," the head of the Russian Embassy’s press service, Nikolai Lakhonin, said on his Twitter page.

The online news and social networking service Twitter, the owner of the same-name microblog service, has made a decision to remove advertising from all accounts of the RT, a Russian English-language television channel broadcasting around the world, including the United States, and the news agency Sputnik. The decision is effective immediately, Twitter said.

Twitter explains this decision is based on what it describes as "retrospective work" it has been doing "around the 2016 U.S. election and the U.S. intelligence community’s claims" that "both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government."

According to the statement, RT and Sputnik are free to remain users on the platform. Twitter has also decided to take the $1.9 million it is projected to have earned from RT global advertising since they became an advertiser in 2011 and donate those funds "to support external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections.".