Russia urges to adopt international rules of social media content moderation - ministry

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Moscow backs laying down international regulations in moderating content by social media platforms in light of the recent actions by the US IT giants, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. "It is clear that the media sphere must be regulated and codified. We need to establish constructive dialogue with all interested parties to mobilize efforts to work out clearly defined demands for transparency of policies of social media content moderation and enshrine them in international documents. There is pressing need for joint substantive work in relevant international organizations, primarily the UN, Council of Europe and the OSCE," the Russian diplomatic agency underlined. The ministry stressed that restrictive actions of American social media managements about the content published on their platforms "dealt a blow to the democratic system of values and the international information architecture." "Permissibility of arbitrary and non-transparent censorship of media content by digital platforms in absence of relevant court decisions raises question about the state duty as a guarantor of implementing international obligations to ensure freedom of opinions by those under its jurisdiction," the statement notes, adding that the US violated a number of international documents including OSCE ones. Note for US embassy The Russian Foreign Ministry has also warned the US embassy that Moscow has the right to take measures in response to spreading of fakes about Russia by US digital platforms. "We note the large-scale dissemination of fakes about Russia by American digital platforms who systematically produce provocative content which is, in turn, coordinately spread by the US embassy in Moscow. Its representative who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on January 27 was handed a note of protest containing a warning that the Russian side reserves the right to respond," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Read more