Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal lists company's 5-point approach to Ukraine war

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

As Russia’s invasion in Ukraine rages for over 20 days, Twitter has released a flurry of steps taken to fight fake news amid growing concerns of misinformation and trampling of critical voices.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal summarized five key steps that the social media giant is taking and reiterated that the company has a responsibility, especially during a crisis.

“We have a responsibility – particularly during crisis – to: Proactively enforce our rules, preserve access to Twitter, protect privacy and safety of people on our service, prevent efforts to manipulate public conversation, promote credible information,” Agrawal, who took over as the company’s CEO in November last year, wrote.

We have a responsibility – particularly during crisis – to:

- Proactively enforce our rules
- Preserve access to @Twitter
- Protect privacy+safety of people on our service
- Prevent efforts to manipulate public conversation
- Promote credible information https://t.co/8hDLpDmwE7

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) March 16, 2022

In Twitter’s blog titled, “Our ongoing approach to the war in Ukraine”, the company shared all the steps it is taking in English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Twitter will remove tweets or even accounts if any content is in violation of its rules and if the risks of immediate harm associated with the tweet are not as severe, the company will de-amplify the content to reduce its reach.

Reiterating that free internet is important, the blog said that the company is aware of restrictions in Russia.

“Over the past several weeks, people in Ukraine, Russia, and around the world have used Twitter to share critical information in real-time, locate support, connect with one another, and raise their voices. Unfortunately, we are also aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia. As we’ve said previously, we believe that a free and open internet is vital, and that people around the world should have the same access to information. We take our collective role, and the role of our service, seriously.”

The blog also said over 75,000 accounts have been removed for violations.

“Since the war in Ukraine began, we have removed more than 75,000 accounts for violations of our platform manipulation and spam policy,” the blog read.

Our top priority is keeping people on Twitter safe.

We’re actively monitoring for risks associated with the conflict in Ukraine, including identifying and disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information.

Here are the steps we’ve taken:

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 25, 2022

Russia had asked Twitter to comply to several rules, however the company didn’t accept all leading to restrictions on the usage in the country.

Russia has criminalized calling the invasion in Ukraine as a ‘war’ and President Vladimir Putin has referred to it as a ‘special military operation’.