The change, spotted by The Telegraph, also shows the Russian authorities’ accounts on timelines and recommendations. A former Twitter employee told the publication that this move is likely because of a policy change. Twitter has changed its policy about a number of things in recent days including what accounts it deems government and state-affiliated. The earlier version had a section called “Do these labels limit functionality?” where the company described how it limited the reach of some accounts in this category. “In the case of state-affiliated media entities, Twitter will not recommend or amplify accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people. In limited circumstances where there is a heightened risk for harm, including situations where governments block access to information on the internet 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. Now, the company has entirely removed that section. Additionally, responding to a user over the weekend, Musk said that Twitter will moving forward “neither prompt nor limit their accounts” and the company will “rapidly address any attempts at gaming the system.” Historically, there have been multiple instances of the Kremlin using Twitter accounts to manipulate a narrative. Twitter is now resurfacing official Russian accounts in search results by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch
