Tests show Elon Musk's Twitter removed limits on Kremlin-linked accounts, including Putin's, with some showing in For You feeds, reversing an April 2022 policy
Bans Mastodon and Substack links, unrestricts the Kremlin tweets. — https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... Lauren Weinstein / @lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org : Musk welcomes Russian propaganda back to Twitter - https://techcrunch.com/... Tweets: Elon Musk / @elonmusk : @TitterDaily 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. @lolgop : When I tell you Elon's only goal for Twitter is empowering rightwingers and weakening democracy everywhere, especially in the US, I mean Elon's primary goal for Twitter is empowering rightwingers and weakening democracy everywhere, especially in the US. https://www.rawstory.com/... https://twitter.com/... @titterdaily : NEWS: Elon on Twitter no longer limiting Russian government accounts on Twitter's “For You” Page https://twitter.com/... Chris Vickery / @vickerysec : Elon's Twitter: Now providing aid and comfort to the enemy. (btw- that's the definition of treason) https://twitter.com/... @losivad : #Russian #Kremlin-linked accounts are back on Twitter. 😠 “It would be exceedingly unlikely that this change would have happened accidentally, or without the knowledge and direction of the company's staff.” Social media is seen as a key part of the Kremlin's misinformation. https://twitter.com/... @paulachertok : WTAF is wrong with @ElonMusk https://twitter.com/... Dennis / @pourteaux : Out: Subst*ck In: Putin https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... @pleizar : The government cannot put a classified payload on a spacex rocket ever again, I hope they realize this https://twitter.com/... Philip Bump / @pbump : https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Oliver Alexander / @oalexanderdk : While Elon has been busy blocking and limiting engagement on Tweets that link to “the website”, Twitter has also decided to remove the restrictions placed on the Kremlin's Twitter accounts last year. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... @auspolmate : The official Russian Twitter accounts have been given full reach again. (No longer restricted to only being seen in Russia). Including @KremlinRussia_E President of Russia account. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... https://twitter.com/... Sarah Reese Jones / @politicussarah : “Russian government tweets appeared in Twitter's algorithmically-driven “For You” feed for a newly created account, even when it did not follow them.” https://twitter.com/... @info_rosalie : As they say on this platform: Concerning. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... Sarah Reese Jones / @politicussarah : A pattern of behavior. Elon Musk's social media site lifts restrictions on Kremlin-linked tweets https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... @warbirdusa : Maybe the military trusting Elon musk and starlink for national defense isn't a good idea lol https://twitter.com/... @denestorteli : The Telegraph reported that Twitter has removed search restrictions on Russian President Vladimir Putin's official account, as well as Russia's Foreign Ministry, and Russian Embassy in London accounts. #StandWithUkraine https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... https://twitter.com/... Don Moynihan / @donmoyn : In the last week or so Musk: *de-verified the NY Times *tagged NPR as state media *blocked the main source of citizen journalism he once said he championed *green light to Russian propaganda he once promised to constrain after Ukraine invasion https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... https://twitter.com/... Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D / @rvawonk : “Twitter has removed restrictions on Kremlin-linked accounts... [This] comes after it emerged that Twitter was no longer limiting the reach of Russian state media organisations.” Once again: Twitter is a national security threat. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the pressure ran both ways: Moscow's leading internet providers throttled access to Twitter and Facebook inside Russia within days, and by March 2022 Twitter was deleting posts from Russia's London embassy that denied the Mariupol hospital bombing. An April 2022 restriction policy then pushed Kremlin-linked accounts out of recommendation surfaces.
This report shows that wall coming down under Musk: tests found Putin's account and other Kremlin-linked profiles unrestricted again, some surfacing in For You feeds. It lands weeks before Twitter also strips state-affiliated and government-funded labels from outlets including RT and Xinhua, and months before an EU study finds Kremlin-backed accounts' reach grew through 2023.
First-order effects
- Kremlin-linked accounts, up to and including Putin's, regain algorithmic distribution through For You feeds they lost under the April 2022 policy, while Mastodon and Substack links are banned — cutting off the main migration paths for users leaving Twitter.
- Musk publicly frames the reversal as free-speech symmetry ('neither promote nor limit'), putting Twitter's own enforcement on record against the censorship posture it took at the start of the war.
Second-order effects
- State media like RT benefit twice over — restrictions lifted here and identity labels removed separately — so their content travels with neither a throttle nor a disclosure marker attached.
- European regulators get concrete evidence for the disinformation track: the same year the restrictions fell is the year the EU measured Kremlin-backed reach growing, strengthening the case for enforcement mechanisms over voluntary platform pledges.
Third-order effects
- If unilateral executive decisions keep overriding wartime content policy, platform moderation of state actors shifts from institutional rule to individual judgment — pushing governments toward regulatory instruments like the EU's framework rather than trusting platform self-policing.
- The pairing of unrestricting Kremlin accounts with banning rival-platform links points to a structure where a single owner controls both what enters the feed and which exits remain open — a concentration question regulators have not yet answered.
The trend: Wartime platform containment of state propaganda is being unwound by ownership-level decisions, moving the fight over Kremlin influence from content rules to regulators.